Renewable energy sources

Vattenfall is investing heavily to increase the share of renewable energy in our production. Our ambition is to substantially increase our electricity generation derived from wind power, hydro power and biomass. We are also developing ocean energy technologies for future use.

Continued strong expansion for wind power

Vattenfall will continue to expand its involvement in offshore wind power, particularly in the countries around the North Sea.
Onshore expansion will be focused on certain prioritised markets.
Read about wind power

Biomass

We are increasing our combustion of biomass to replace coal in production of electricity and heat, thereby reducing CO₂ emissions from our existing plants. Vattenfall has more than 40 heating and power plants that are powered entirely or partially by biomass. We use a total of three million tonnes of biomass per year, and are thus one of the world’s largest buyers and users of biomass. Biomass-fired plants account for a steadily growing share of total Vattenfall energy generation. The goal is to increase the use of biomass as much as possible within the confines of responsible use.

Many of our power plants in Denmark and Germany have started co-firing with coal or are planning to do so. In Germany, plans have been drawn up for biomass-fired power plants in Berlin and Hamburg. In the Netherlands projects are planned to increase the amount of biomass co-fired with coal in power plants in Amsterdam and Buggenum. In 2010, two new biomass co-fired CHP plants were inaugurated in Denmark. At the same time two biomass-fired boilers began operating in Finland and Sweden.
Biomass and Waste

Stable access to hydro power

Vattenfall owns and operates more than 100 hydro power plants, most of which are located in Sweden, with a few in Finland and Germany. The Group’s Swedish hydro power plants generate 35 TWh per year, depending on water levels. Many of our hydro power plants have provided a wealth of knowledge about how hydropower can be generated with minimum environmental impact and how new research findings and technological solutions can be used to improve the efficiency of today’s hydropower plants.

We have an ambitious investment programme for our hydro power operations – some 30 of the Group’s hydro power plants will be upgraded by 2014. The expected increase in output is 400 GWh per year. In September we began to construct the Abelvattnet hydro power plant, with installed capacity of 4.6 MW, in the municipality of Swedish Storuman. This will be our first newly built hydro power plant in more than 15 years.

In Germany, Vattenfall operates six hydro power plants and eight pumped storage power plants. The latter are used to store energy in order to even out generation between periods of low and high consumption. They are important tools for balancing the irregular input of wind power into the electricity grid.
Hydro power 

Developing ocean energy

Vattenfall believes that Ocean Energy will be the next large renewable energy technology commercialized within ten to fifteen years.

It has several advantages: the ocean is an abundent renewable energy source, and the technology does not emit any green house gases. Using ocean energy would also increase diversification and security of supply of Vattenfall’s production portfolio, and provide a long term growth opportunity for Vattenfall.

Vattenfall is presently focusing its Ocean Energy engagement in Scotland. With a massive ocean resource, Scotland and the Shetland Islands have a great opportunity to harness a substantial new marine industry. Investigation and planning is currently underway to set up a test site off the Southwest coast of Shetland, where Vattenfall hopes to have the first full-scale wave farm cleared for construction by 2015.
Ocean energy