MISTRA Electrification Annual Meeting 2024

Marta Vetier discusses the importance of (re)acceleration in the deployment of onshore and offshore wind power in Sweden

Marta Vetier and Jessica Jewell presented POLET researchers’ findings at the MISTRA Electric project’s annual meeting in Saltsjöbaden on 3-4 October. The annual project meeting brings together researchers, industrial actors, and policy-makers from Sweden to discuss electrification in Sweden. This year’s two-day meeting focused on how to overcome barriers and bottlenecks to electrification.

Jessica highlighted that barriers and drivers of technology growth can vary as we move along the deployment curve and there are differences between technologies, locations, and time. Marta focused on onshore and offshore wind power in Sweden, both of which play a significant role in Swedish scenarios on future electricity mix. She showed that Sweden’s onshore wind deployment peaked a few years ago and the wind industry anticipates it to continue to decline. Such growth pulses are often observed, and re-accelerating growth can happen even after a complete halt on deployment. Building upon emerging research on German wind policies, Marta argued that Sweden will need to tackle current barriers if they want to re-accelerate growth. With regards to offshore wind power in Sweden, Marta explained that Sweden’s current policy environment is insufficient for offshore wind power deployment.

During the workshop discussion, MISTRA Electric project partners and stakeholders shared their views on what policy changes would be necessary to better accommodate onshore and offshore wind power in Sweden. The discussion centered around the role of armed forces and municipalities in the permitting process, the current market environment and electricity prices, the recent and still uncertain changes in the government’s energy priorities and compensation and subsidy schemes.