EU’s subsidy scheme support CNG infrastructure in northern Sweden
The European Union’s TEN-T Program will co-finance with over €2 million a pilot deployment of compressed natural gas filling stations on the northern Sweden’s main road network. The project will cover two new CNG fueling sites in Härnösand and Umeå, as well as improve existing stations at Sundsvall and Skellefteå.
The aim of this project is to increase the number and density of the CNG filling stations, encourage the use of the fuel and create a market opportunity for CNG/LNG investors. The project’s results will be used to develop best practice for new actors in the NGV market and support decision-making for other possible fueling site. The project will also provide solutions on how to accelerate market development of such infrastructure along the roads in specific regions where the distance between urban centers and gas distribution grids is too long, or where such a grid does not exist.
The BioGaC project, which is a result of the political commitment of five municipalities, with Skellefteå taking a leading role, won the subsidies under the EU’s TEN-T Program, selected under priority 2, Decarbonisation. Closely involved in the whole process, politicians have declared to switch to CNG for fuelling their own fleets used for e.g. home care, bus transport and waste collection, thereby creating a base market encouraging follow-up investment from the private sector. Other local and regional decision makers will gain from the lessons learned, as the BioGaC project will serve as a decision-making tool for policy-making under similar circumstances.
Experiences and results from the trial, which started in March 2014 and lasts until December 2015, are also benefitting the planning and construction of future filing stations in the area.
With a well developed market for gas powered mobility, Sweden currently counts 50.000 natural gas vehicles, more than 200 filling stations for CNG, and six for LNG. However, the refueling infrastructure is unevenly distributed in the country, with a high concentration of stations in the more densely populated southern part and only four in the northern territory.
https://www.ngvjournal.com/eus-subsidy-scheme-support-cng-infrastructure-in-northern-sweden/
