Governmental support for municipally owned biogas plants during earlier years has however been a prerequisite for the Swedish success. Various other incentives have also been very important – 40% reduction of income tax paid for the use of a CNG company car, free municipal parking for NGVs in many cities, and priority lanes at airports, railway stations and ferry terminals for CNG taxi cabs. Not all of the incentives still exist as there has been a change of government. 24 hour well maintained self-service filling stations with payment via standard credit cards have also been well received. Sweden is now pioneering the large scale production of biomethane produced from forest industry waste within Europe.
Another innovation is the future overland transportation of liquefied NG/biomethane using tank trailers to supply filling stations without close access to biogas plants or the NG grid. The availability of liquefied gas will also support the use of L-CNG filling stations servicing both conventional CNG vehicles and hopefully also long haulage 44 ton trucks using LNG.
There are currently two L-CNG filling stations operating in Göteborg & Södertalje and an LNG station, which is situated in the city of Malmö. The first production plant for liquefied biomethane in Sweden is now in operation, located in Lidköping in the Västra Götaland County.
Source: NGVA Europe.
