Latest news with #Stockholmers
The Guardian
28-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
‘The heat you need at a reasonable price': how district heating can speed the switch to clean energy
District heating is sometimes talked about like some kind of unattainable utopia, but in the Swedish capital these low-carbon heating networks are not special. In fact, district heat is so run-of-the-mill that many Stockholmers do not know that they have it, said Fredrik Persson, as he showed the Guardian around Stockholm Exergi's pioneering power station in Norra Djurgårdsstaden, a former port and industrial area. The roots of that success go back several decades. Like the UK, Sweden had problems with air pollution and acidification during the 1960s caused by coal combustion. But unlike Britain, which turned to the natural gas fields of the North Sea for a solution, resulting in Britain's dependence on it for central heating today, Sweden instead mobilised around the idea of creating a shared 'central chimney'. 'You could manage the combustion in one place, have proper purification of the flue gases and get better air quality centrally,' says the energy adviser and entrepreneur Ulrika Jardfelt, who was previously CEO of Svensk Fjärrvärme (Swedish district heating) and a vice-president at the Swedish energy company Vattenfall. This required the creation of district heating networks to transport the heat from a central boiler to individual homes and buildings. The initiative got a flying start when 1m new homes were built in the 1970s. The greenness, or otherwise, of the systems depends very much on the inputs, she explains. If you're using gas then they're not that green. But if, as in Stockholm's district heating network (which also claims to be the world's largest district cooling system), the inputs include heat from residents' wastewater, excess heat from the electricity used to cool datacentres and supermarket refrigerators, and steam from incinerated non-recyclable waste at combined heat and power plants, the carbon footprint will be far lower. The story of Sweden's district heating success is two-tier, says Adis Dzebo, a senior research fellow at Stockholm Environment Institute, with district heating and heat pumps meeting over 75% of energy demand. The two have successfully cut reliance on oil, which has gone from total dominance in the 1970s to less than 5% today. A pivotal factor, says Dzebo, was the 1973 oil crisis – when the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) introduced an oil embargo on Israel-supporting countries – prompting Sweden to invest heavily in renewable energy research and innovation, paving the way for the energy transition of the 1990s. 'Sweden introduced a carbon tax in 1991 and together with having ample biomass resources, the change was rapid.' This, combined with the dominance at the time of a multi-dwelling housing ownership system that was communal for both privately owned properties and social and rental housing, where owners had a share in the whole building, enabled shared heat networks to flourish. The development of nuclear and hydro, which stabilised electricity prices and paved the way for heat pumps in single-dwelling properties, also played a role. But, says Dzebo, the leadership of municipal and state companies leading the transition was also crucial. 'This allowed higher risk-taking and created co-benefits with creating labour opportunities. With innovation, Sweden became leading on combined heat and power plants, waste incineration and re-use of industrial waste heat.' Sweden's district heating prowess has attracted admiration from around the world. According to Swedish Energy Agency statistics, in 2023 district heating comprised 52% of total residential energy use for heating and hot water in Sweden. In comparison, district heating in the UK was less than 3% of the market share in 2022 – a figure that the British government wants to stretch to 20% by 2050. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion What, then, for countries that do not have long-established roots with district heating? The most efficient way is to use heat sources that are available locally, says Jardfelt, such as datacentres or flue gases from waste incinerators. But, she warns, it depends on property owners being willing to replace their existing boilers with district heating plants that draw heat from hot water in the district heating network. 'Do you dare to trust that you will really get the heat you need and at a reasonable price? This may require government price regulation.' At Stockholm Exergi's pioneering power station in Norra Djurgårdsstaden they burn forestry waste to produce district heating. The company, which is half-owned by the city of Stockholm, plans to build a bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) plant close to the site to produce negative emissions. They have already set up a research facility there and calculate that there is potential to capture 800,000 tonnes of CO2 a year at the plant. If this was emulated across the city, they claim that figure could rise to 2m tonnes. 'This is the beginning,' says Persson, a company spokesperson. 'But we hope that lots of others will follow.' But there is no perfect or permanent solution to energy transition, says Dzebo. 'It requires constant reconfiguration and agile decision-making. But, often the trade-offs can be perceived as being too high.'
Rudaw Net
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Rudaw Net
A century after Leyla Bedir Khan's performance in Stockholm
Also in Culture Kurdish artist finds audience in Germany for eco-friendly creations Kurdish composer receives Hollywood music awards Online Kurdish film festival returns with focus on Rojhelat Erbil concert celebrates Kurdish musical heritage A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - On this day in 1925, the Kurdish princess and ballet dancer Leyla Bedir Khan performed at the Royal Musical Academy (Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien) in the Swedish capital Stockholm. Her captivating performance earned widespread attention from Swedish newspapers. Aftonbladet wrote, 'This young lady will bring Stockholmers to their feet with her magnificent dance at the Academy of Music on Tuesday.' The review marked one of Bedir Khan's earliest performances. After visiting Austria and Romania, Leyla Bedir Khan was among the first six Kurds to arrive in Sweden in the early 20th century. The head of the Concert Company (Konsertbolaget) Helmer Enwall invited the foreign artist to perform in Stockholm. Swedish newspapers wrote that Leyla had won the admiration of the audiences in Vienna and become a sensation in particular with her native dance called Shopi. The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter wrote that Bedir Khan first appeared in front of an audience in Vienna in 1924 before she arrived in Stockholm. The journal added that one could see the first signs of the 'Leyla fever' (en Leila-feber) spreading across Europe, anticipating that 'the beautiful princess will also visit our northern lands.' Indeed, in the fall of 1925, the Princess arrived in Sweden. Svenska Dagbladet wrote that Leyla is a unique person who has taken her place in the world of dance as a queen. Some newspapers have used the word 'exotic' in their headlines. Dagens Nyheter has compared Leyla to the Indian artist Nyota Inyoka, who had visited Sweden in 1924. The historic building where the night of Bedir Khan's performance took place in the center of Stockholm, at the Royal Academy of Music located at "Nybrokajen 11" which faces the famous Strandvägen Street and the Royal Dramaten Theater. The Academy of Music building was built in 1878 and has one of the largest concert halls in the building, where the Nobel Prize was first awarded in 1901. In that same hall, which has seating for 474 people, Bedir Khan performed and according to newspaper reports, the hall was packed that night and tickets sold out. The Austrian musician Marcel Lorber accompanied Leyla by playing the piano. The words dance, music, and theater were used extensively in Bedir Khan's tour, representing the three pillars of world culture. Dagens Nyheter wrote that the princess presented Kurdish, Iranian, Caucasian, Egyptian, Spanish, and Turkish dances. The Stockholm audience warmly embraced the Kurdish ballet dancer with thunderous applause and expressed their joy. Sometimes the applause did not end so that the artist could repeat the same number (da capo). The diversity of her costumes was also greatly appreciated by the audience. Although she was still at the beginning of her career, she made a great effort to win the hearts of Stockholmers in 1925. Her stardom had risen even more by 1930 when she had made a name for herself as a global artist. When comparing the news before and after the night, one sees that dance critics presented several different opinions. Bedir Khan's dance night consisted of two segments. Critics liked the second segment more, especially the numbers called Kurdish Dance and Bibi. Some newspapers also criticized repetitions and lack of liveliness. For example, the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet wrote that her mysterious movements had disappeared and her movements became too simple. After her performance at the Royal Academy of Music, she stayed in Stockholm for about two weeks, performing as a guest at the Folk Theatre (Folkteatern, Folkan) in the Ostermalm district of the capital. Opposite the Folk Theatre is the magnificent and beautiful Covered Market (Saluhall) which was built in 1888. The Kurdish Sherif Pasha who was the Ottoman ambassador in Stockholm, lived in that neighborhood for about ten years from 1898 until 1908. The princess had a good opportunity to get to know the Swedes and their capital, Stockholm during her stay. One newspaper wrote that the dancer's beauty and talent placed her among the stars. In a Swedish magazine, she was considered one of the great beauties. Most of the Swedish news stories were published before or after the Kurdish dancers' performance in 1925. Newspapers reported about her travels to other countries. One of the major newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet, published a long article in 1924 before her arrival, which began with the words: 'Who is Leyla Bedir Khan?' The article shed light on Bedir Khan's family history. Swedish newspapers also presented their views on the princess during her stay in Sweden and conducted several interviews with her. Some journalists compared her to Jews and Hungarians, while others compared her to true Indo-Europeans. She was presented as a beautiful European girl who spoke about six languages. In these interviews, she often spoke about her family, her father Abdurrezzak Bedir Khan, and the Kurdish cause. The newspapers called Bedir Khan's father an emperor (Kejsare) and therefore she was introduced as the "Princess of Kurdistan" (Prinsessan av Kurdistan). According to the princess, her father was once the ruler of the city of Van in southeast Turkey (Bakur). In one interview, she says that her father tried hard to form a union with the Russians so that the Kurds could be liberated and free, however, he failed and was killed. Newspapers reporting on her dance night (dansafton) drew readers' attention to the fact that a Kurdish princess had become a dancer which amazed them. For this reason, the words princess and dancer were often used together when describing her. One newspaper summed it up as follows: 'The times are like this' (Sådana äro tiderna). Stockholms-Tidningen (The Stockholm newspaper) reported that in a place like Kurdistan, which is part of Iran, the Ottoman Empire, and Mesopotamia, no ruler is immune to misfortunes. As a result, the name Bedir Khan became increasingly important in writing the history of the Kurdish women's movement. She served as a historical example for breaking taboos and supporting women's freedom. On the other hand, she is one of the Kurdish women who went to Europe and Sweden for the first time in the 20th century. This visit is a bright page in the history of Kurdish-Swedish relations. Sixty-six years after her time in Stockholm, in 1991, Swedish and Kurdish artists held a gala in and around the same venue where she performed. The gala was held in the square of the Ostermalm district in central Stockholm.
Local Sweden
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
OPINION: It's down to Sweden's lawmakers to help immigrants feel less vulnerable
'How do we move on?' a reporter asked Crown Princess Victoria after the terror attack on Drottninggatan in Stockholm claimed five lives in 2017. 'Together,' she responded. Victoria's one-word response was one of the many moments that stuck with me after the terror attack, and it came back to me again after a man called Rickard Andersson walked into the Campus Risbergska education centre in Örebro and murdered 10 people. I, like many others, felt desperately sad after the Drottninggatan terror attack, but I also remember feeling a small glimmer of hope in the days after the tragedy. It brought out the best of Stockholmers, who opened their homes to strangers in the ensuing chaos. But how do we move on together after the Örebro shooting, when we seem further apart than ever? We still don't know what Andersson's motive was. Police say they are trying to piece the puzzle together, but haven't found one yet. As he appears to have been a social recluse and didn't leave behind any kind of obvious manifesto, we may never know. But a motive from a policing and legal sense is one thing. The societal context in which the attack took place, and the burning questions that it raises for Sweden, is another. And what we know is this: The shooting happened at a komvux, a school where adults ‒ many of whom are immigrants ‒ can go to study a few modules or classes they need to qualify for Swedish university courses. Some study Swedish for Immigrants, or take courses to become an assistant nurse or for another career which does not require university education. The majority, if not all, of the victims had a foreign background. We know some of them had their roots in Bosnia, Kurdistan, Eritrea, Syria and Afghanistan. Nursing students, a janitor student, a maths teacher, a chef. Parents, adult children, and loving partners. Regardless of motive, it was a massacre, and it was a massacre of immigrants. In a televised address to the nation on Sunday evening, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that he understood the 'concern and fear' among students and parents, as well as people with foreign backgrounds 'who speak of a sense of particular vulnerability'. 'We must understand, respect and meet all of this. As a society, but also as fellow human beings,' he said in a speech that was unusually free of political punchlines. Kristersson and his government, as well as his predecessors from the opposition, would do well to also reflect on the divisive policies and election campaigns which have for years targeted immigrants, fuelled xenophobia and made many foreigners feel unwelcome in Sweden. Surely they can't be so out of touch that they don't realise that this 'sense of particular vulnerability' existed well before the Örebro attack? It was only this month that Kristersson again blamed violent crime on immigration. The generalisation left a bad taste in the mouth then, and it's almost unbearable today. 'Where did the good Sweden go?' asked Queen Silvia when she spoke to journalists at a memorial service in Örebro. 'We must rebuild what's good in this country.' So how do we do that? We can follow the example of Marwa, mentioned by Kristersson in his speech, the nursing assistant who stayed to help a wounded man, while gunshots were still ringing out. Together with the help of others Marwa managed to put the man in a car to get him to hospital. 'She is one of many who this week have shown that love and care is so much stronger than hatred and violence,' said Kristersson. 'It was hard, but she did it anyway.' In this darkness and division, there are numerous stories of hope and unity. The teachers who reacted quickly, barricaded their classroom doors and likely saved many of their students' lives. The restaurant that provided shelter for people who fled the school. The first responders, the hospital who took in the wounded. The locals who hugged each other at the memorial site outside Campus Risbergska, foreign-born and native-born, comforted by each other, relieved to see each other alive. The staff at the nearby preschool who sang and danced with the children in their care and gave them strawberry ice cream to keep them calm and protected from the chaos outside. We can help each other remember those stories too, and the stories of those whose lives were taken, not just the horror, tragedy and division that led us down this path. And we can hope that everyone in Sweden, including decision-makers and the prime minister himself, heeds his own words that should have been said years ago: 'Because when it comes down to it there is only ONE Sweden. Not us and them. Not young or old. Not born here or born abroad. Not country or city. Not right-wing or left-wing.' Maybe then we can finally move on. Together.
