Sweden’s parliament has adopted a new energy target that changes the country’s 2040 energy mix target to “100% fossil-free”, instead of “100% renewables”. This change gives the green light to the Swedish Government to push forward with plans to build new nuclear plants.
In January 2023, the Swedish state-owned power utility Vattenfall had announced it was investigating the possibility to construct 2.8 GW of new nuclear capacity at its existing Ringhals site on the western coast of Sweden, including at least two small modular reactors (SMRs). The company submitted a notification to the country’s transmission system operator Svenska Kraftnät for the project, which could enter operation in 2032. Vattenfall also expressed its interest in extending the life of the country’s existing reactors.
At the end of 2022, Sweden had 6 active nuclear reactors with a total capacity of 6.9 GW: Forsmark 1-2-3 (3.3 GW), Oskarshamn 3 (1.4 GW), and Ringhals 3-4 (2.2 GW). This amounted to about 15% of the country’s installed capacity. Vattenfall possesses a majority stake in the operators of the Ringhals and Forsmark plants. Sweden expects its electricity demand to double to around 300 TWh by 2040 and plans to reach net zero emissions by 2045.
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