Kristianstad; the City with no Fossil Fuels

The city of Kristianstad from Sweden, is known as the area where the famous Absolut Vodka is made. They are also known for the fact that they vowed ten years ago that they will stop using fossil fuels sometimes in the immediate future. Of course, not too many were convinced of this, as they considered the claim to be too bold. They considered that such a thing could not be achieved especially in a short period of time.

However, nowadays the city no longer uses oil coal or natural gas in order to heat up the offices, and the homes of the 80,000 people who live there. The situation is very different in comparison to two decades ago, when all the heat came from these energy sources. The area is very cold, and despite of these circumstances, they have still managed to obtain all of the heat from the green energy sources. However, they obtain energy from sources you might not believe. They do not use solar panels, or wind turbines in order to generate electricity, because these would be pretty useless in the area. Besides creating the vodka, the area is also one of the biggest farming regions. They use the remains from farming, such as manure, potato peels, pig intestines, and even cookies, in order to obtain energy. They have a plant which can use all of these ingredients and then to turn them into energy in order to heat the entire region. They use those items in order to create biogas, which is a certain type of methane, and then they use the methane in order to heat of the entire city, and to provide electricity for the city as well.

The city officials said that the process is not too difficult, and that the most difficult part was getting started. Once they did that, they realized that energy could be obtained from many things which were considered to be useless. The city now uses the sewage pounds and the waste resulted from various factories in order to obtain energy as well. Sweden is not the first country which started using the green energy sources. Numerous European countries have done it, and in fact are still doing it, but in most of the cases they are using wind turbines, and solar panels. The problem associated with this method is the fact that they are very expensive, and that they will have to pay certain fees to the European Union if they overuse these energy sources. More and more regions from Europe are using the same approach as the one from Sweden. The rural areas are using the waste from the numerous animal farms in order to obtain energy and to use it for various purposes.

The officials from Kristianstad said that they decided to make the change for two different reasons: they wanted to protect the environment, and they did not want to import fossil fuels from other countries. Thanks to the change, more people have jobs in the region, as new plants have been opened. The situation is different in the United States of America, where there are very few biomass plants. The Environmental Protection Agency stated that the plants which can be found in the country are very small, and that all of them are able to process only the manure. They said that these plants could be very beneficial, as one of them would be able to provide energy and electricity for about 8,000 farms. The problem is that they are very expensive, and since they do not exist in the country, the investors are being afraid to get involved in the project. However, there are certain companies and certain states which want to invest in this domain, as they consider it to be the domain of the future.

Southern California Gas and San Diego Gas & Electric declared that they intend to construct such power plants into the state of California. California is one of the states which demanded the large industries and company to obtain a certain amount of energy they use from green energy sources. The biogas and the natural gas, are pollutants, but they are far less pollutant than the coal and than the other fossil fuels. The biogas is considered to be a green energy source, as it obtained from things such as animal waste, fermented food, and so on, thus it is recycled. It seems that the major companies from the United States of America would like to find out more about this industry from the Europeans. The officials from Wisconsin have sent people in Germany, which is one of the biggest countries from Europe which uses the biomass in order to produce energy. Both Wisconsin and California are very similar to Kristianstad, in the sense that they produce lots of waste, which would become inefficient if it would not be used.

The problem is that if the waste is not used, then it would end up polluting the atmosphere. It is very important for these states and countries which produce very large quantities of waste, to reuse the waste, because otherwise, it would be too polluting for the atmosphere. Kristianstad has not made the full transition yet, as they still have the old factories which use the fossil fuels. They are used way less than before, but they still exist. In fact some of the technologies which were used in order to obtain energy from the fossil fuels is used in order to obtain the green energy. The same trucks which were used to transport the fossil fuels are now used to transport the green energy sources. The truth is that the costs associated with this new type of energy were pretty high. For example the city spent about $144 million in order to create the required plants and devices used to process the material. However, the officials said that the investment was worth it, because the costs for the heating during the winter have been reduced with more than 50 percent. Instead of $7 million per winter, they pay $3.2 million. Most of the public vehicles from the city no longer use gas or diesel, but they use the biogas because it is less polluting, and because it is less expensive.

The city is making money because many of the companies have to pay fees in order to get rid of the waste. Once the plants use the waste and turn it into energy, they sell the energy to the private and public companies. The situation has improved a lot for the city in the last 30 years, as in 1980s, the city could not afford buying energy, and as a result, some of its schools did not have heat. In order to improve the situation, the city started using the district heating system, which is made out of pipes which are inserted into the ground and distribute the energy into an even manner. The system proved to be very effective, as it reduced the costs, and it improved the heating in comparison to the regular system which uses boilers. This system can use numerous types of energy, and in the beginning the city of Kristianstad used the fossil fuels. However, since 1991 the country started to impose a tax on the usage of fossil fuels, so the city decided that a change would be efficient.

In 1993 they started using animal waste instead of other energy sources, and by 1999, they made the transition completely. There are certain remote buildings which can not benefit from the centralized heating system, but these buildings use certain furnaces which are based on the same system. The furnaces use the waste in order to produce energy as well. They have also started using the wood waste in order to produce energy, as it is much more efficient than the logs. The wood waste does not produce so much pollution, and it is less expensive as well. On top of that, the wood waste costs about 50 percent less than the oil, and other fossil fuels, so it is much more advantageous to use it. The city officials are very optimistic, and they are convinced that by 2020, the city will pollute with 40 percent less than it did in 1990. They also hope that by 2020 the city will stop using fossil fuels altogether. The change would be impressive, especially in that small amount of time. It seems that the biggest pollution comes from the vehicles, and the officials have stated that they would like to convince the people to change their cars into cars which use biomass instead of fossil fuels. The change might be difficult to make, but they believe that if they stimulate the people, they will be willing to make the change.

This might be harder to achieve, as a “green car” costs way more than a regular one and the costs might not be worth it. However, the officials have stated that the most important thing is the state of the environment and not the costs.