Is Local Energy Supply a Main Road to Sustainability?

Abstract

The use of local energy production as a strategy to improve energy safety, control costs and mitigate climate change is reviewed. Local energy is in practice equivalent to renewable energy. There are a large number of different sources of local energy production. Some of them, including solar electricity, energy efficient building and biogas production, are in rapid technical development. The use of local energy is estimated to be around 50 % in Sweden. A number of cases, mostly from Sweden and Europe, where local energy has been a strong and important policy are described. Networks of municipalities which work for local energy autonomy are found all over the world and some of them are reviewed. Typically a strong policy for local energy production creates substantial numbers of job opportunities and thus contributes to the local economy, provides social and environmental benefits, improves energy security, and reduces emissions of greenhouse gases.