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270 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

FIGURE 14.9 Electricity regulating by the EcoGrid Real Time Market (EcoGrid EU, 2015).

of waste to energy, and throughout the country seeing the development of both
large and small projects devoted to the reduction of GHG emissions.

Va ¨xjo ¨

Va ¨xjo ¨ is a Swedish city with a population of around 65,000 that has been
committed to sustainability since 1996, when it decided on the goal to elim-
inate all fossil fuel usage by 2030, because of overwhelming local pollution at
that time. In 2011 the city updated its goals for the year 2015:

l reduce the final energy usage per capita by 15%
l reduce CO 2 emissions by 55% compared with 1993 levels
l reduce electricity usage 20% per capita compared with 1993 levels
l reduce the municipality owned locations’ energy use by 17% compared
with 2002/2003 levels
l reduce city transport CO 2 emissions by 30% compared with 1999
The city furthermore signed the Covenant of Mayors, an agreement to go
beyond the EU 20-20-20 sustainability goals and targets (20% share of
renewable energy, 20% reduction of CO 2 emissions compared with 1990, 20%
greater energy efficiency). Va ¨xjo ¨ therefore has committed to reduce CO 2
emissions by 65% per capita from 1993 levels by 2020 (Kommun, 2015)
(Fig. 14.10).
In 2010 Va ¨xjo ¨ had a renewable energy production share of 53%, due in
large part to the usage of CHP plants utilizing regional forestry waste as a
biomass fuel to supply heat via the city’s district heating network, with
electricity from CHP usage accounting for a third of the city’s electricity
consumption. The Sandvik CHP Station is a 105-MW CHP plant and the city’s
largest provider of energy, with an energy utilization factor of 92%. It runs
mainly on a variety of biomass fuels collected as waste products from the