Biogas systems in Finland and Sweden: Impact of government policies on the diffusion of anaerobic digestion technology

Nedanstående innehåll är skapat av Mimers Brunns besökare. Kommentera arbete

This research discusses the impact of government policies on the development of biogas systems in Finland and Sweden. Special focus is on the diffusion of anaerobic digestion technology as part of the renewable energy systems in both countries. Both Finland and Sweden have a relatively modest biogas production in the European context. While biogas production in Finland is mostly based on the collection of landfill gas, however, in Sweden the production of biogas using anaerobic digestion technology and its end-use application as vehicle fuel is rapidly increasing. The results of this research demonstrate that the more rapid diffusion of anaerobic digestion in Sweden than in Finland can be explained by differences in government policies. The main driver for anaerobic digestion in Sweden has been the environmental policy, which is based on a set of environmental quality objectives the implementation of which is a shared responsibility of different government agencies. What has facilitated the implementation of biogas systems at regional level is the "regional empowerment" approach on behalf of the government, which has motivated the municipalities to draft their own environmental and climate strategies. This approach has been beneficial to biogas due to the fact that the positive impacts of biogas systems are easier to understand from a regional perspective than from a national perspective. In practice, many of the projects designed by the municipalities to combat climate change at local level have focused on biogas systems development. The fact that Sweden has a more integrated strategic approach than Finla...