STOCKHOLM — Sweden will build 2,000 new wind turbines over the next decade as part of a bid to dramatically increase its production of renewable energy, Enterprise and Energy Minister Maud Olofsson said Tuesday.
"Sweden has extremely good prospects for rapidly increasing the production of renewable energy, especially from the burning of biofuels, cogeneration plants and windpower," Olofsson wrote in a newspaper column.
The Scandinavian country would for instance build "2,000 new wind turbines of the size common today by year 2020," she said, adding that the new turbines would provide Sweden with an additional 10 terawatt hours (TWh) per year. A terawatt is equal to one trillion watts.
Within the same timeframe, Sweden would also expand its use of other forms of renewable energy like biofuel and solar power to increase its total output from such sources by 25 TWh, she said.
Around 20 percent of Sweden's current energy production comes from renewable sources, and the country aims to increase the balance to 50 percent by 2020.
Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
