Swedish examples of energy saving

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33778, 26 February 1975, Page 18

Swedish examples of energy saving

Sweden had embarked on an energy conservation programme from which New Zealand might learn, the technical head of a Swedish environmental control organisation (Dr G. Persson) said last evening in Christchurch.

Dr Persson was speaking at the annual meeting of the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Clean Air Society. He said that Sweden was considering proposals to cut gasoline consumption, lower the sulphur content of fuel oil, and reduce energy consumption in private homes. The country’s goal was to reduce the rate at which energy consumption was increasing to not more than 2 per cent annually, with a goal of nil growth in 1990. The Government proposed to restrict the gasoline consumption of private cars to about 1.2 litres per 10 miles —about the level, of a small compact car, Dr Persson said. This was not a control on the number of miles the owner of a car could travel each week, but a restriction on the sale of cars which in road tests consumed more than 1.2 litres of petrol per 10 miles. The efficiency of domestic energy-consuming devices would be improved where possible. Heat adjusters which operated only at fullon and off would be regulated, room temperatures kept lower, and better building insulation pressed for. _ Energy consumption in private homes could be considerably lowered without any new inventions, he said. Measures to cut the sulphur content of fuel oil to an average of 2.5 per cent for Sweden and 1 per cent m urban areas were being considered. , , .. . It had been calculated that 50 per cent of sulphur deposited in Sweden came from other countries, Dr Persson said. Sulphur was known to exacerbate asthma and bronchial weakness. Sweden had established district heating schemes and controlled by municipal authorities. They provided

electricity and heat, and reduced the number of heating furnaces. However, the scheme might be easier to implement in Sweden because the density of heat consumption there was higher than in New Zealand. Dr Persson said that research done on the storage of radio-active waste from nuclear reactors, of which Sweden had 10. showed that waste was produced at about the rate of a few cubic metres a year from a 1000 megawatt station. Radio-active waste could be stored in rocks about 100 metres underground for 500 to 700 years. Fossil fuel burned in Sweden was estimated to increase the country’s atmospheric carbon dioxide content

by 20 per cent by the ye 2000. This would undoubted have an effect on the weather, Dr Persson said.