Sweden’s electricity production and consumption have become a hot topic this cold winter of 2021. Increasing prices and a lack of electricity has led to a discussion among politicians in Swedish media.

In an article in Swedish journal Sydsvenskan Professor Jenny Palm and PhD student Frans Libertson state that the debate means a risk to overlook better and cheaper solutions to handle the lack of electricity. A study from the IIIEE shows that the lack of electricity mainly has been discussed from a centralized perspective, but that decentralized production has many advantages.

• Decentralized energy systems are better when it comes to production or renewable energy, such as solar energy and wind power.
• Decentralized energy systems can be more resilient and flexible as they are structured by many small production units instead of a few large units.
• Decentralized energy systems can to a larger extent contribute to a democratization as the decision-making, responsibility and ownership will be moved from a national level to regional or local level.
• Decentralized energy systems are more resource efficient as the short distances between production and consumption leads to a reduction of lost electricity.
• Decentralized electricity production is more cost efficient and easier to scale up.

Debate article in Sydsvenskan (in Swedish, link to new window)