NGV Global

Western Sweden leading the world with its biogas project
Getting a market going was essential in finding a foothold for biogas. With this
as its focus, the western Swedish project Biogas Väst has transformed the
region into a global leader in the area of biogas as vehicle fuel. As an added
bonus, carbon dioxide emissions in the region have decreased by 32,000 tons.
Now politicians and business representatives from around the world are making
pilgrimages to the Göteborg region to learn more about biogas. Visitors can view
household waste decomposing in large facilities and follow the process of upgrading the
biogas formed to the filling into vehicles that run on methane fuel.
When the Business Region Göteborg-headed Biogas Väst project started, there were nine
gas stations and 800 vehicles in the region. Today, Göteborg and the Västra Götaland
region has the country’s best infrastructure with gas filling stations, comprising 40 filling
stations, approximately 8,000 vehicles and nine plants producing biogas for vehicle fuel.
These figures make western Sweden the country’s most advanced area in terms of
biogas production and filling stations.
Bernt Svensén, previously a project manager with Biogas Väst and now the chairman,
has been on board right from the start.
“During the first few years, there were few who understood the significance and the
potential when we talked about converting waste material to biogas fuel. It felt like we
were fighting an uphill battle when we explained the climatic benefits. But the tide has
turned over the past three years. Now biogas is on the political agenda,” he says.
The project began as a result of the European Commission’s goal to replace ten percent
of current motor fuels with renewable fuels by 2020. When this goal was set, there were
few who looked at biogas as a serious alternative.
There were some, however, who saw a lot of potential for development in biogas. In the
Göteborg region for example, the Borås, Trollhättan and Göteborg municipalities had
already begun the process of handling household waste in order to extract biogas. Volvo
Car Corporation sold vehicles with natural gas engines and the company FordonsGas,
which builds filling stations, had just started up with three employees. But everyone was
working separately with their own agendas.
Biogas Väst was given the task of contributing to regional market development and
getting all of those involved on the market to work together. The long-term objective was
to get everyone involved to drive developments forward on their own initiative.
“We wanted to create new job opportunities by focusing on the entire chain. We
connected biogas production to filling stations and to the automotive industry,” says
Svensén.