Strategic municipal energy planning in Sweden – Examining current energy planning practice and its influence on comprehensive planning
Vincent Wretling,
Ulrika Gunnarsson-Östling,
Christina Hörnberg and
Berit Balfors
Energy Policy, 2018, vol. 113, issue C, 688-700
Abstract:
The Swedish municipalities, which possess great autonomy for land use planning, are required to have Energy Plans (EPs) concerning the distribution and supply of energy. However, most municipalities no longer have operational control over these aspects of the energy system. Instead, many municipalities have initiated proactive, strategic energy and climate planning. Prior to a potential legislative revision, the current energy planning practice is examined with regards to the propagation of these different energy planning approaches and the influence of municipal energy planning on comprehensive planning. This study shows that 61% of Sweden’s 290 municipalities adopted an EP during 2004–2015. Most of these EPs had a broad scope, and it is shown that during the studied time frame the focus of the municipal energy planning gradually shifted towards mitigating climate change. The municipalities’ population size also has a significant effect on the propagation and currentness of energy planning. Furthermore, municipal energy and climate planning increases the potential for ensuring the consideration of energy and climate targets and strategies in comprehensive planning, which can facilitate a more sustainability-led municipal planning in line with the Swedish energy and climate objectives, and this relation is thus urged to be strengthened.
Keywords: Municipal energy planning; Comprehensive planning; Energy Plans; Energy and Climate Strategies; Local governments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517307449
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:113:y:2018:i:c:p:688-700
DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.11.006
Access Statistics for this article
Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France
More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().