After customs duties on ethanol were introduced this year a great number of production plants are planned all over . Within two years production in may increase by more than 500 %.
Swedish production of ethanol will amount to approximately 70 000 m³ in 2006. However, that market is changing quickly and within two years Swedish production may amount to 450 000 m³, i.e. an increase of 540 %. And that is only the beginning. The forecast is that even more factories will be built in coming years. Many different enterprises are involved in various projects all over the country.
The world's biggest energy company, State of of , has also entered this market. This company co-operates via an affiliated company with another company in the for the purpose of building an ethanol factory in Sveg. Mr Kjell Andersson of the Swedish Bio-fuel Association says that this project concerns a plant for combined production that may become a model for new similar production plants in in coming years. The plant in Sveg will consist of a combined power and heating plant, a pellet factory and an ethanol factory. In addition to ethanol, the plant will produce electricity and district heat, it will also dry pellets and sawn timber. Swedish forests will constitute an important raw material source for ethanol production in .
Kjell Andersson emphasizes the importance of three factors for starting ethanol production in . The first one is tax exemption for bio-fuels, the second the EU Directive that in 2010, 5.75 % of all liquid fuels shall be ethanol and the third is the import duty on ethanol that was imposed this year.
