Trollhättan, a town of 53 000 inhabitants on the Gota river not far from Lake Vanern, Sweden’s largest lake. It is centre of a commuting region of 160 000 people. It has a dynamic economy with more than a million inhabitants in its hinterland. The town is famous for its waterfalls on the Gota river which provided hydropower for the development of local industry, and for the historic Gota Canal, built as a direct route to Stockholm at the dawn of the 19C.

Trollhättan has a long tradition of both environmental action and energy planning. Their Agenda 21 programme won Trollhättan the King Carl XIV Gustaf Environmental Prize, as the most environmentally sound municipality in Sweden and Trollhättan received two other national awards for good environmental practice.

The municipality of Trollhättan in cooperation aims to create a long term sustainable society with a good quality of life, where energy is effectively used and based on renewable energy sources. The municipality as a whole aims to reduce its use of fossil energy by 50 % from 1996 to 2010.
The municipality takes the lead and reduce the non-renewable energy consumption in its own activities by 90 % or more.

The strategies used were:

The goal that the municipality should reduce its overall use of fossil energy by 50 % between 1996 and 2010, means that about 750 GWh per year will be supplied by RES or be reduced by energy efficiency measures. Most of the fossil energy is currently used for transport or heating.

In addition the municipality will be a trailblazer and will reduce its own fossil energy consumption in its own activities by 90 % or more. That corresponds to 50 GWh per year. The municipality’s instruments of control vary. To meet the latter, 90%, reduction goal is in this respect somewhat easier for the local authority to fulfill.

Satisfying the goal for the municipality as a whole is largely dependent on an effective and long lasting co-operation and agreements between all the local and regional stakeholders.

While Trollhättan is exemplary in preparing and delivering its plan, it cannot do this without resources. The potential resource from the municipal utility is now much less secure. While part of its monopoly role, distribution, remains secure, it is covered by heavy regulation and the large profits of the past are now a memory.

The sale and production functions are now competitive and there also profit margins are squeezed by competition. Trollhättan is clearly using many of its own resources to help deliver, but these are limited and the investment need is very significant.

The city of Trollhättan
Maria Gerd, tel. +46 (0)520 49 50 00

//1996

case

Urban Policy > Urban environment

Environmental sustainability