Why Even Pristine Sweden Struggles With Green Energy

As a world leader in renewable energy and a major exporter of low-carbon electricity, Sweden is among the green elite. Yet a cold snap provoked a political storm this winter when, in order to keep the lights on, the authorities started up a 52-year-old oil-fired power plant. A furious debate centered on the wisdom of decommissioning nuclear plants, and even the use of vacuum cleaners, exposing a divide over plans to rely more on wind power for everything from transport to factories. The fracas offers pointers to the many countries trailing Sweden on the path to a greener future.

Karlshamnsverket, the aging power station in the country’s southeast, predates Sweden’s first nuclear reactors in the early 1970s and had been kept on stand-by as a last resort. As temperatures plunged in the first week of February, the plant owned by German utility Uniper SE, was fired up, albeit for little more than five hours. The fact that it started at all was seen by critics as exposing the fragility of the nation’s energy system following the closure of four nuclear reactors in the past six years.