WindEurope's Giles Dickson met with Sweden’s Energy Minister

WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson met with Sweden’s Minister for Policy Coordination and Energy, Ibrahim Baylan, in Stockholm on 17 January. Charlotte Unger, CEO of the Swedish Wind Energy Association, also took part in the meeting.

They discussed the EU’s Clean Energy Package, notably:

• the importance of Sweden deploying new renewable capacity beyond 2020 in a linear trajectory, as required by the proposed Governance Regulation, rather than backloading deployment to the end of the 2020s;
• the case for a higher EU renewables target for 2030 than the Commission’s proposed “at least 27%”;
• the need to ensure Member States in the Council fully appreciate the economic and competitiveness case for the expansion of renewables; and
• the need to defend the positive elements of the Commission’s proposed new Renewable Energy Directive.

Sweden is one of only seven EU Member States that has defined national targets for renewables for the period beyond 2020. They have committed to deploy 18TWh of new renewables capacity by 2030. The Swedish wind industry already has 15TWh of projects lined up to contribute.

Sweden helps to finance renewables investments through a certificate scheme. They plan to keep this scheme until 2030 instead of moving to auctions. However, the scheme needs reform. Certificates are oversupplied today and worth only €10/MWh. The Government plans to introduce legislation this year to tighten the scheme. Charlotte Unger discussed the options for this with Minister Baylan.