Country Update For Sweden 2023

This paper presents the current status of geothermal energy use and market development in Sweden. There is a wide-spread use of geothermal energy in Sweden, dominated by shallow geothermal energy systems. These are typically using a heat pump, and the bulk of the installed systems are vertical or horizontal ground source heat pump systems for space heating and domestic hot water heating in single-family houses. The market for such small geothermal systems has been relatively stable over several years, while the market for larger residential and non-residential shallow geothermal energy systems for heating and cooling is increasing. The Swedish geology mainly consists of hard crystalline rock with low geothermal gradients. Hence the conditions for shallow geothermal energy use is very favourable, while the conditions for traditional deep geothermal energy use are not so favourable. No deep geothermal energy systems for power production exists in Sweden, and there is no deep geothermal direct use application that meets the WGC deep geothermal definition. Since the mid 1980’s there is, however, one rather shallow low-temperature plant in operation in Lund in the southern part of Sweden, providing large-scale heat pump supported geothermal heat to the district-heating network. An increasing interest in deep geothermal heating in Sweden over recent years has resulted in several deep geothermal exploration projects. Shallow geothermal energy is the fourth largest renewable energy source in Sweden.