Swedish Press Dec 2020/Jan 2021 Vol 91:10 by Swedish Press

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Swedenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New Paradigm: Making Fuel from Renewable Electricity

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December 2020/January 2021 Vol 91:10 $5.95

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Electro-fuel Interview with Scania CEO Rjukan Heavy Water Liquid Wind

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Swedish Press is the world’s leading magazine on all good things Swedish. An authority on design, business, culture and travel since 1929, Swedish Press delivers insightful news and commentary in a visually striking format. With a nod to the past, and a peek to the future, Swedish Press is your go-to source for updates and inspiration from Sweden. SWEDISH PRESS (ISSN 0839-2323) is published ten times per year (Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June, July/Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec/Jan) by Swedish Press Inc, 862 Peace Portal Drive, Suite #101, Blaine WA 98230 for $45 per year. Periodical postage paid at Blaine, WA 98230-9998 (No. USPS 005544). US POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Swedish Press, PO Box 420404, San Diego, CA 92142-0404 OFFICE: 9040 Shaughnessy Street, Vancouver, BC V6P 6E5 Canada US MAILING ADDRESS: PO Box 420404, San Diego, CA 92142-0404 WEBSITE www.swedishpress.com E-MAIL info@swedishpress.com TEL +1 360 450 5858 TOLL FREE +1 866 882 0088 PUBLISHER Claes Fredriksson Claes@swedishpress.com EDITOR Peter Berlin Peter@swedishpress.com ART DIRECTOR Joan Law Joan@swedishpress.com REPRESENTATIVES Calgary: Carin Pihl +1 403 931 0370 Edmonton: Ruth E. Sjoberg +1 780 237 6730 Thunder Bay: Elinor Barr +1 807 344 8355 Toronto: Gunilla Sjölin +1 905 751 5297 Winnipeg: Nancy Drews +1 204-668-7262 Los Angeles: Birgitta von Knipe +1 310 201 0079 New York: Timothy Lyons +1 732 685 3747 San Diego: Sue Eidson +1 858 541 0207

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CONTENTS ( December 2020 | January 2021 ) 4 Letters to the Editor 5 From the Editor’s Desk Swedish Headlines 6 Headline News 7 Swedes in the News 8 Landskapsnyheterna Business 9 Business News 10 Company File: Liquid Wind AB Heritage 11 An Insider’s Look at Swedish Culture: Kan det verkligen bli en fröjdefull jul i år? Feature 12 Large-scale Electro-fuel Production Set to Become Major Global industry

“Group IV, The Ten Largest, No. 3, Youth,” by Hilma af Klint from 1907.

19 Hilma af Klint: A Swedish Woman Artist of a Differnt Stripe Lifestyle 20 Top Sju 21 Science: A Green Game-changer Hemma Hos 22 Design: Volta Trucks Unveils World’s First Electric 16-tonne Delivery Vehicle 23 Treats à la Judi Lifton Road to 2045 24 New Technologies to Mitigate Global Warming

ADVISORY COMMITTEE Björn Bayley, Peter Ladner, Brian Antonson, Christer Garell, Anders & Hamida Neumuller SUBSCRIPTION rates per year $45, 2 years $75, 3 years $115, 1 year abroad $115. Digital edition $32. Subscribe Toll Free at 1 866 882 0088 or at www.swedishpress.com. ADVERTISING visit www.swedishpress.com/advertise-us for advertising rates. Call +1 360 450 5858 or +46 725 607800. SweMail TRANSLATIONS to English of the Swedish parts of Swedish Press are available free of charge every month. Visit http://biolson.atspace.cc/swemail/

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© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduction in whole or in part without written consent of Swedish Press is strictly prohibited. Unsolicited material is welcome, but never the publisher’s responsibility. Enclose stamped self-addressed envelope for return. Statements and opinions expressed by the writers and claims in the advertising are their own and do not necessarily represent Swedish Press.

Interview 14 Juergen Puetter – Chairman and CEO of Renewable Hydrogen Canada (RH2C)

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Global Swedes 16 Henrik Henriksson – President and CEO of Scania AB

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Heritage 18 A Tale of Scandinavian Inventiveness and Bravery

NEXT ISSUE DEADLINE: JANUARY 10, 2021

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Swedish Press Connects 25 TCS – Canadian Trade Commissioner Service 26 ASTRA – Association of Swedish Teachers and Researchers in America 27 SVIV – Svenskar i Världen In the Loop 28 Calendar and Events 29 Ads and Info 30 Thank You Cover images: Rendering of ecological energy solution © Leestat/123rf | Bottom: Container cargo ship. Photo: Enanuchit/123rf

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Letters to the Editor Enjoy reading Swedish Press? Email us your pictures along with your name and comments to info@swedishpress.com and we’ll be happy to publish them. Hej Peter! Ni gör ett imponerande jobb med Swedish Press. Elegant och full av en massa stort och smått. När jag läste din beskrivning av färjeresan från Amsterdam till Göteborg så kom jag ihåg den enda gången vi tog den och det blåste ordentligt. I vår fina hytt högst upp i färjan låg två vuxna och två barn och bara väntade på att få komma iland. Det lär inte bli så mycket resande utanför landet i vinter. Vad jag förstår är bokningstrycket högt på svenska vintersportorter inför alla skollov och helger. Hälsningar, Leif Lundquist Enebyberg, Sweden Hi Joan, My magazine came today! It was really touching to read about all the Swedish and Nordic events that have been reignited here in Winnipeg. I feel proud to also have been a contributor in previous days. A short time ago I was asked to prepare information on my grandfather for a visual Heritage Minute presented as part of the Manitoba 150 celebrations. Arthur Anderson and artist Clarence Tillenius were chosen as two Swedes worthy of the honour, they being strong influences and embodiments of Swedish achievement. The short videos will be released November 7 for a virtual presentation. At that time the link will be sent to me and I will gladly forward it to you. Tack så mycket! Laurel McCallum Winnipeg, Manitoba

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Hi Peter, I am an old time reader of Swedish Press since I moved to Vancouver BC 33 years ago. I really enjoy it and read it from start to finish. I am also one of those “valiant” volunteer translators. I was just reading your page about the Nobel prizes this year and was so disappointed about how brief it was. This is such a prestigious award and I would suggest you at least elaborate more on the topics and give examples of what the research means and as to literature what books are written and where to find them. Maybe spend a two-page spread on it. This year’s awards are also important for humankind in various ways. Being a proud Canadian now, it would be nice to mention that Dr. Houghton works at a Canadian university since 10 years. Anyway, just would like to urge you to consider this for your December or January issue. Thanks for a great publication. Regards, Mats Gerschman Vancouver, British Columbia

Editor’s comment: Hi Mats, Thank you for your message. We would have loved to include a more comprehensive report in the November issue, but since the last prize was awarded on October 12 and our deadline for article submissions was October 10, you can imagine how we scrambled to even include the summary report. But your point is well taken, and we will reserve space for a more detailed article in 2021. Swedish Press Thank you so much for featuring Swedes of Manitoba in the October issue. We’re all enjoying it, and I am the Swedish Club on Wheels getting it out there. Keep up the great Swedish first-class magazine. Make us all proud! Sonja Lundström Winnipeg, Manitoba Below: “Spirit of Sweden” art by Sonja Lundström.

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from the Editor’s Desk

How to Make Fuel from Renewable Electricity We need your support!

Swedish Press strives to create a high quality magazine for you, but the costs are considerable and ever-increasing. Please consider making a generous donation to help keep your publication, and Swedish heritage, alive. You’ll find a form on page 2 as well as page 29. Tack!

Whether your Swedish is fluent or rusty, we hone your language skills by publishing some articles in Swedish. But never despair: you will find English translations online thanks to our valiant team of volunteer translators. Simply go to http://biolson. atspace.cc/swemail/ and you will find translations of all Swedish articles going as far back as to August 2007. GRATTIS PÅ FÖDELSEDAGEN Dec 7 Chelsea Dahl, 10 år Dec 11 Mila Granberg, 16 år Dec 12 Alec Anders Malhotra, 10 år Dec 15 Chloe Dahl, 12 år Dec 31 Erika Serhan, 16 år Jan 2 Sofia Eaton, 16 år Jan 14 Matthew Dahl, 10 år Jan 23 Niklas Lofstrand-Davey, 11 år Jan 25 Asia Thornquist, 15 år

very winter I teach spacecraft engineering at a university in Swedish Lapland. My final-year students often come to me asking for career advice. They sometimes say that they are interested in a particular discipline and hope to make a career in that narrow field. My answer is always that, when contacting a potential employer to enquire about job vacancies, they should not limit their expressions of interest to one particular discipline, because if they do, it could be a long time before they find a job. Instead, I advise them to broaden their statement of interest to designing spacecraft in general and let the employer decide if and where to fit them in. “But then I may end up doing something I don’t enjoy,” the students worry. My answer is that almost any subject becomes interesting – even fascinating – once we have a reason to delve into it. The main theme of the present issue of Swedish Press is Making Fuel from Electricity, an innovative approach to reducing the emission of greenhouse gases that are destroying our climate. If I were a student about to graduate and were offered a job in this particular field, I might have shunned the opportunity because my main interests lie elsewhere – or at least they did until recently. However, after editing the present edition of Swedish Press and exploring the subject of renewable and sustainable fuels in some depth, I now find it absolutely riveting. I even feel guilty about having recently bought a pre-owned, gasoline-driven car instead of a hybrid or electric ditto. Anyway, I see no reason to change my career advice to those students in Lapland. The subject of sustainability is technically, politically and commercially complex. I have endeavoured to make it as accessible as possible for our readers. There is a degree of subject overlap between the various articles, and perhaps you will appreciate having these complex issues illuminated from different angles. We have included interviews with two champions of sustainability: Henrik Henriksson, CEO of the Swedish heavy vehicle manufacturer Scania (page 16), and Juergen Puetter, CEO of several Canadian wind energy and electro-fuel producers (page 14). The profile of the Swedish electro-fuel producer Liquid Wind (page 10), along with articles by Morten Valestrand (page 12), Kristi Robinson (page 22) and Blue World Technologies (page 21), highlight how electro-fuel is made and how it is used in practice. I hope that, having read the present issue, you will share some of my new-found enthusiasm for sustainability, and that you will look forward to a sustainable future as both an inspiration and a challenge. We at Swedish Press join our regular contributor Yvonne Gossner (page 11) in wishing our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Given the restrictions on socializing brought about by COVID-19, the words “merry” and “happy” may take on different connotations this year – less stress, more quality time with family and close friends, and good reasons to bake lots of Swedish seasonal delicacies!

Peter Berlin Editor Peter@Swedishpress.com December 2020

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Sweden Treading Softly, Softly Sweden Accused of Hypocrisy By Peter Berlin

ome political analysts are criticizing the Swedish government for not taking sides in the current political turmoil in the United States. They argue that President Trump’s position on many political and social issues is incompatible with Sweden’s self-proclaimed role as defender of democratic values. These issues include racial relations, women’s and children’s rights, abortion, and the news media being labelled “the Sweden to increase military spending

President Trump and Swedish Prime Minister Löfven give a joint statement at the White House in March 2018. Official White House Photo by Stephanie Chasez

enemy of the people.” While Swedish politicians have expressed strong objections to similar values being

democracy, but re-introduced it in 2017 on a limited scale. The plan is now to increase the total number of military personnel from 60,000 at present to 90,000 by 2025. Electric cars and “range anxiety”

T Photo: Joakim Nordstrand/Swedish Armed Forces

bserving that Russia is using military force to recapture some former Soviet domains, and following repeated Russian incursions on Swedish airspace and territorial waters, Sweden has decided to increase its defence spending by 40 percent. The budget increase amounts to SEK 27.5bn (US$ 3.1bn) by 2025. The new budget will include upgraded armaments as well as a substantial increase in military personnel. Sweden abolished conscription in 2010 during the political thaw as Russia transitioned from Communism to western-style

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he number of electric cars on Swedish roads has doubled in just two years, and yet they only constitute 3 percent of the country’s vehicles. One reason for the modest take-up is that public charging stations are having difficulties catching up with demand. Their numbers are insufficient, the sign-posting is poor, and prices and payment methods are perceived as confusing. Most owners of electric cars currently charge their batteries either at home or at the workplace, but unless the network of charging stations is widened quickly, people’s enthusiasm for switching from gasoline/diesel to electric may slow down due to “range anxiety” – the fear of becoming stranded in the middle of nowhere due to a flat battery.

violated in countries like Belarus, Uganda, and South Africa under apartheid, their silence regarding the present electoral upheaval in the US is seen as hypocritical. The main reason for Sweden’s reserved position is thought to be that formal Swedish objections will have no impact whatsoever on current events in the US, and that any interference will only sour the deep political, economic and security relations between the two countries. The willingness of Swedish politicians to speak out appears to be proportional to the impact they may have on countries that rely on Sweden for trade or foreign aid.

COVID-19 update

weden has long made international headlines for its lenient approach to controlling the spread of the coronavirus. Like other European countries, Sweden is now experiencing a sudden and steep increase in the spread of the pandemic. Tests are detecting more than 4000 cases per day. The number of deaths per day, which was close to zero until mid-October, has now reached around 12, with a spike of 40 deaths reported on November 12. That said, it is still some way from the 100+ deaths per day in April. Reluctant to admit that the trustbased approach may have failed, on November 5 Swedish authorities introduced new mitigating guidelines that apply to 18 of Sweden’s 21 regions where most of the cases are found. The content of the guidelines is similar to the strict rules elsewhere in Europe but differ by not being enforceable. The guidelines apply until November 26 when the situation will be re-assessed.

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Swedes in the News

Movie Losses and Gains, and a Golden Bridge Farewell Sven Wollter

Sven Wollter. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT

Beloved Swedish actor and author Sven Wollter, 86, died from Covid-19 complications at Sunderby Hospital in Luleå on November 10. Wollter, a Gothenburg native, well known for his roles in Vilhelm Moberg’s series Raskens, Colin Nutley’s Änglagård and Billie August’s A Song for Martin, actively tried avoiding the virus since its outbreak. For example, while touring with rock band “Nynningen” during the fall, the audience was kept to a maximum of 50 people. Wollter also told media that he and his wife Lisa Wede lived a sheltered life in the couple’s house in Luleå in northern Sweden. Wollter tested positive for Covid-19 after a trip to Stockholm. Ten days later, he lost the battle against the disease. Wollter is survived by his wife and four children. Kernell up for Oscar The Swedish Film Institute recently revealed that the movie Charter by Swedish

director and screenwriter Amanda Kernell will be Sweden’s Oscar contribution next year. Kernell is especially well-known for her movie Sami Blood, which received high praise and several awards when it was released in 2016. Kernell’s recent movie Charter tells the story of a divorced woman who during a troublesome custody battle abducts her children and travels to the Canary Islands. The Academy Awards ceremony takes place in April 2021. Kernell said she was very happy with the nomination.

Eric Nelson. Photo: National Nordic Museum

understanding and cooperation between the United States and Sweden, as well as other Nordic nations”. “It is an incredible honor to receive this award. It is a testament to the international reach and significance of the Museum and its programs” he said. Bridge fit for a king

Amanda Kernell. Photo: Sweprint

Nelson’s Medal The Nordic Museum, on Djurgården in Stockholm, recently awarded the National Nordic Museum’s Executive Director/CEO Eric Nelson with the Hazelius Medal in Gold. During a virtual ceremony broadcast from Sweden, the Nordic Museum explained that “it had awarded the Hazelius Medal in Gold to Eric Nelson for his tireless work to build bridges of

Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden, has officially inaugurated the spectacular new 140-meter-long goldpainted steel bridge between Södermalm and the Old Town in Stockholm. During the ceremony, the King, accompanied by Sweden’s

H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf. Photo: Peter Knutson/Kungahuset.se

Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Estelle, cut a gold ribbon using a pair of

gold scissors before crossing the bridge on foot. The event, which was broadcast online, also featured entertainment by singer/songwriter Molly Hammar and The Royal Swedish Army Band. The bridge is now open to traffic on a limited scale. Duplantis on display

Armand “Mondo” Duplantis. Photo: Frankie Fouganthin

Amazing Pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis has a lot to be proud of. This year the American-born Swede set one outdoor and two indoor world records, and now he can be seen in one of the world’s most expensive advertising locations: Times Square in New York City. The company behind the ad is the NASDAQ stock exchange. The company wanted to showcase Duplantis and bring attention to his world records. After spending summer and fall in Sweden, Mondo is back at his training camp in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, where he’s getting ready for a busy winter and spring list of competitions.

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[Landskapsnyheterna] SKÅNE De flesta textilier i Sverige hamnar i soporna. Väldigt lite går till återvinning. Nu ska en helt ny anläggning vid namn Siptex i Malmö ändra på det. I anläggningen separeras och sorteras textilierna i olika textilslag. – Textilen matas ner på ett transportband och vidare till sensorer som belyser den med infrarött ljus, och då känner maskinen av vilken fibertyp det rör sig om. Sen kan man återvinna materialet i nästa steg, sa Anna Vilén på Sydskånes avfalls aktiebolag (Sysav). Siptex är en världsunik anläggning. – Den här maskinen är helt unik, och den gör dessa textilier till en råvaruresurs för mode- och klädindustrin. Man kommer inte behöva odla lika mycket bomull och producera lika mycket syntetisk polyester. Här har man ett avfall som blir råvara för nya produkter, sa Erik Perzon på IVL Svenska Miljöinstitutet. Flera svenska modeföretag, myndigheter, forskningsinstitut och aktörer från textilbranschen deltar i det miljövänliga projektet. – Alla har ju ett gemensamt intresse av att öka materialåtervinningen. De stora varumärkena har ambitiösa hållbarhetsmål där man vill öka andelen återvunnet material i sin produktion, sa Anna Vilén på Sysav.

Textilsorteringsanläggningen Siptex i Malmö. Foto:Andreas Offesson

VÄRMLAND På grund av årets pandemi inställdes Wermland Operas traditionella fasadshow på Karlstads teater i Värmland. Istället planerar operan

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LAPPLAND NORRBOTTEN

Foto: Wermland Opera

en julpark med ljus och stämningsfull musik på området runt teatern. – Det blir en liten upplevelse. Ganska lugnt och skönt, lite meditativt kanske. Det blir vacker belysning och tre olika världar, för det är tre olika musikstilar där belysningen följer med i de olika stilarna, berättar Pernilla Bergland Eduard, marknadschef på Wermland Opera. Enligt Wermland Operas ledning kommer parken inte att leda till lika mycket trängsel som fasadshowen eftersom besökare rör sig på en större yta. Personal kommer också att finnas på plats. – Vår personal kommer att be publiken att komma tillbaka en annan dag om det blir trängsel, sa Pernilla Bergland Eduard. Parken håller öppet mellan 16.00 och 23.00 fram till den 31 december. UPPLAND/SÖDERMANLAND Stockholm stad testar sina första diagonala övergångsställen i korsningen Mäster Samuelsgatan/Regeringsgatan och på Mikrofonvägen/Telefonvägen. – Vi har valt de platserna för att det inte går några bussar här och för att det är medelstora trafik- och gångflöden. Tanken är att det ska bli bättre framkomlighet för gående och bättre trafiksäkerhet för bilarna. Vi har bland annat tittat på London och Tokyo där den här lösningen är vanlig, sa trafikborgarrådet Daniel Helldén (MP). De diagonala övergångsställena innebär att bilar och cyklister får vänta lite längre. – Det blir lite längre väntan för alla, men när det väl blir grönt så går det också snabbare för alla att komma fram, berättar Daniel Helldén.

VÄSTERBOTTEN

JÄMTLAND

HÄRJEDALEN

ÅNGERMANLAND

MEDELPAD HÄLSINGLAND

DALARNA GÄSTRIKLAND VÄSTMANLAND VÄRMLAND DALSLAND BOHUSLÄN Göteborg

UPPLAND

SÖDERMANNÄRKE LAND

Stockholm

ÖSTERGÖTLAND

VÄSTERGÖTLAND

GOTLAND SMÅLAND

HALLAND

ÖLAND SKÅNE

BLEKINGE

Malmö

Övergångsställena kommer att utvärderas nästa sommar. – Det är kul att prova något nytt, och om det fungerar bra kan det definitivt bli aktuellt på fler platser, sa Daniel Helldén.

Diagonala övergångsställen i Stockholm. Foto: Stockholms stad

Summary in English: Recycling textiles just got easier. A unique facility in Malmö called “Siptex” separates and sorts used clothing into different textile types. Each material can later be recycled. Wermland Opera's traditional Christmas show at the Karlstad Theater has been canceled due to the pandemic. An outdoor Christmas park has been organized instead. Stockholm City is trying out their first diagonal pedestrian crossings. The success of the project will be evaluated next summer.

[Business] News Thriving Enterprises and Dying Farms Strike Action Avoided

By Peter Berlin he Swedish labour union Handels had called for strike action among its members beginning on November 13. The day before, the union announced that the strike had been called off thanks to a last-minute agreement reached with the employer association Svensk Handel. Had the strike gone ahead, it would for instance

Helping Americans job seekers

ntro, a Swedish recruitment company, was founded in 2019 and got off to a rocky start. Paradoxically, Covid-19 has helped boost the company’s fortunes. Instead of employing staff to interview and place job seekers, Intro uses artificial intelligence (AI) to quickly match applicants and vacancies online. The firm serves mainly the engineering and information technology sectors. Because the coronavirus has created an unprecedented workingfrom-home culture, it is possible for someone living in, say, San Diego to find full-time work with a company in Seattle. Since employers are no longer restricted to their immediate geographical areas in their search for staff, the former have a much wider choice of candidates. By the same token, applicants have a wider choice of prospective employers. Intro’s recruitment services have proven popular in Scandinavia, and particularly so in the United States. Unemployment is still a big problem on both sides of the Atlantic, and the situation may deteriorate further if new waves of the coronavirus force businesses to resume laying off in-

have affected deliveries of food items from central storage facilities to individual grocery stores, leaving some of the stores with empty shelves and forcing others to close their doors. A consequence of store closures might have been that customers would congregate in stores that still remained open, making social distancing more difficult and accelerating the spread of COVID-19. The labour dispute was primarily about pay, and the lowest paid

employees will now see a salary increase of around 5.5 percent over 29 months. The dispute was also about employment conditions – notably the tendency of companies to favour the highly unpopular zero-hour contracts whereby an employer does not have to guarantee the employee a minimum number of working hours. This matter and some other issues related to working conditions have yet to be resolved between the parties, but at least the threat of strike action is over for now.

house staff. Thanks to its innovative use of AI, Intro offers job seekers an opportunity to find new jobs quickly and to work from the safety of their homes.

decisions due to further spread of the virus, analysts fear that it may spell the end of the mink fur business in both countries.

Reprieve for Scandinavian minks

n early November, the Danish Prime Minister announced that all 17 million minks on the country’s mink farms had to be culled. The stated reason was that the minks were found to carry a modified form of the coronavirus which could spread to humans and complicate the task of developing an effective vaccine. So far, 214 persons have been found to carry the modified virus. After 2½ million minks had already been killed, the Danish Parliament declared the culling to be against the law and decreed that it be halted immediately. In the meantime, the modified coronavirus has been detected in a small number of minks on farms in the southern Swedish province of Blekinge. Because the annual culling of minks for their fur is ongoing, the authorities see no need for additional culling due to the virus at the present time. Should the governments in Denmark and Sweden reverse their

Woman leads world's oldest company

nnica Bresky was born in Greece in 1975. She left her home country as a teenager and travelled to Sweden in search of an education and a career. She succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Today she is the President and CEO of the Swedish-Finnish corporation Stora Enso with 26,000 employees worldwide and a history that goes back to the 13th century. Stora Enso calls itself “the renewable materials company.” Its eco-friendly products are based on wood Annica Bresky, President and biomass. and CEO, Stora Enso. They are utilized Photo: Fond&Fond by a range of industries and applications worldwide, such as building, retail, food and beverages, manufacturing, publishing, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, confectionary, hygiene and textiles.

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Company File

On the Path to Significantly Reduce Carbon Emissions By Peter Berlin

rom its beginnings as a small start-up enterprise, the Scandinavian company Liquid Wind is planning to build large facilities for producing renewable hydrogen and converting it into methanol, with the help of electricity from wind power. This so-called electro-methanol, or eMethanol, is intended to replace fossil fuels over time. It is made from hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Ordinary water is first split into oxygen and renewable hydrogen in a so-called electrolyzer. To make methanol, the hydrogen output is then combined in a reactor with carbon dioxide captured from industry. The eMethanol is expected to be sold to the shipping industry, where Liquid Wind is still alone in its niche. The driving force behind the business lies in part in society’s growing realization that biofuels, fuel cells and direct electricity cannot replace all fossil fuels.

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Each Liquid Wind facility will convert carbon dioxide emissions into carbon neutral fuel. All photos © Liquid Wind except bottome right © 123rf

“Until recently, the thermochemical process has been too costly for largescale production, but now the cost of generating renewable electricity and hydrogen is falling at the same time as the market begins to value sustainability. By 2030, we aim for our eMethanol to have reached price parity with fossil fuels,” says Claes Fredriksson, CEO of Liquid Wind. After several years of development work, planning and engineering for Liquid Wind's first production facility FlagshipONE is now well underway. It will likely be located in Örnsköldsvik in the north of Sweden, where the company has started a collaboration with the energy utility Övik Energi. The facility is planned to be ready in early 2024 with a daily production

of 160 tons of eMethanol, corresponding to an annual production of at least 50,000 tons. The final investment will come to a total of SEK 1.5 billion (US$ 130m). The decision to proceed will be made in 2022. Once the first operational facility is completed in 2024, additional facilities will be built. The plan is to construct ten production facilities in Scandinavia by 2030, and then to expand the network of facilities to 500 locations around the world. The scale-up reflects big ambitions to replace fossil fuels and significantly reduce carbon emissions. Internationally, the technology will be licensed to local operators. To support the expansion plan, Liquid Wind has an international expert consortium behind it, including Siemens Energy of Germany, the Danish chemical engineering group Haldor Topsøe, the Danish EPC company BWSC, and the Londonbased Carbon Clean. Conditions in many parts of North America are ideal to produce eFuel, and Liquid Wind is already in discussions with potential codevelopers for Canada. See also www.liquidwind.se.

H E RI TAG E

An Insider’s Look at Swedish Culture Kan det verkligen bli en fröjdefull jul i år? Av Yvonne Gossner

ulen 2020 kommer att bli speciell. För många är julen förberedelsernas tid och själva julafton är pricken övet i:et. Men vad händer om vi inte kan göra det vi alltid brukar göra under tiden fram till julafton? För en del kanske detta innebär lägre stressnivå. Nästan alla julkonserter och luciatåg är inställda i Sverige. För de flesta av oss innebär det därmed att vi kommer att sakna de svenska jultraditionerna som vi alltid har tagit som självklara. Jag, som egentligen aldrig brukar varken vara glad för att gå på julbord eller pigg på att gå på julotta klockan 5 på morgonen, kommer att just i år sakna både jul-bordet och julottan mer än vad jag tidigare gjort. Svenskarna generellt kommer därmed säkerligen njuta mer än någonsin av Kalle Anka vid TV:n, eftersom programmet definitivt inte kommer att ställas in. Det som ändå gör att julen kan bli fröjdefull är att närvaron med den allra närmaste familjen kommer att stå i fokus, även om saknaden av den äldre generationen är stor. En del människor har under jularna

tvingats träffa personer de egentligen aldrig har velat fira jul med. I år är det deras tur att finna glädje i ett nytt firande med dem som betyder allra mest och i en mindre skala. Kanske kan julen 2020 också bli början på nya konstellationer inom julfirandet? Likaså är kraven på alla julaktiviteter som bortblåsta och julstressen borde därmed vara lägre än tidigare år. Om det är något år vi ska dra ner på förväntningarna är det väl i år? Det kan säkert för vissa kännas en smula tillfredsställande. En sak som vi med säkerhet vet vi kan göra i december är att baka. Detta har även märkts av i de svenska butikerna, då jästen och vetemjölet emellanåt plötsligt har blivit hårdvaluta. Åh, vad jag ska baka i december – lussekatter, pepparkakor och struvor! Även om det innebär att mitt BMI kommer att bli högre än normalt i december, så kommer jag njuta mer än någonsin av smakerna och dofterna. Denna upplevelse fick jag faktiskt redan i höstas erfara, då jag nämligen aldrig har upplevt så fina höstfärger som i Sverige detta år. Troligtvis berodde det på färre konkurrerande intryck än normalt. Jag är säker på att december kommer att erbjuda en liknande känsla.

Jag har medvetet inte nämnt ordet Corona förrän i slutet av denna text, eftersom alla redan förstår varför julen inte kommer att bli densamma. Vi vet om restriktionerna och vi är alla i samma situation. Jag tänker ofta på hur livet var innan Corona. Hade rubriken ovan skrivits för ett år sedan så hade folk trott att jag blivit tokig. Denna text vill förmedla att julen visst kan bli fröjdefull, men på ett annorlunda sätt. Det kommer onekligen bli en jul vi sent kommer att glömma. Julens budskap om att inte vara rädda utan att tro på det goda, har aldrig tett sig mer verkligt och viktigt än det kommer att göra julen 2020! Önskar er alla en fröjdefull och avstressande jul med massor av hembakade svenska godsaker framför Kalle Anka på julafton!

Summary in English: Swedish Christmas celebrations will be markedly different in 2020 due to socializing restrictions related to the coronavirus. For many people the restrictions may offer some relief from all the stress associated with Christmas, but other people will sorely miss the festivities. The author encourages people to spend more quality time with family members, and to add some festive atmosphere by baking traditional Swedish delectables. Footnote: Yvonne Gossner är en f.d universitetsadjunkt och Swedish influencer, numera ägare av Learn Swedish Culture AB. www.learnswedishculture.com

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Large-scale Electro-fuel Production Set to Become Major Global Industry Translated and adapted from an article by Morten Valestrand in Tidningen Energi. View the article in Swedish at energi.se

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The interest in climate change, sustainability and innovation is growing rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic. The technology to generate and store intermittent energy from renewable sources (mainly solar and wind) and to produce fossil-free (“green”) fuels is also evolving at an accelerating rate. The production of green fuels such as renewable methanol and hydrogen requires vast amounts of electricity; hence the fundamental link between the generation of renewable energy and the growing opportunity for production of green fuel.

itigating climate change by de-fossilizing the road, marine and air transport sectors is not going to be an easy task. The European Commission has recognized the need for an aggressive policy promoting new solutions to substitute fossil fuels. This presents a strong need and opportunity for producers of carbon neutral fuels. Electro-fuels (also known as Power-to-Liquid or eFuels) are an emerging class of carbon-neutral and fossil-free fuels that are made by using renewable electricity and electrolysis to produce liquid or gaseous fuels. By utilizing carbon capture to take CO2 from the atmosphere or from industrial greenhouse gas emissions, carbon neutral liquid fuels such as methanol, gasoline and aviation fuel

can be produced. Electro-fuels offer a viable alternative to fossil fuels. However, producing electro-fuels requires a vast amount of electric power. To supply the country with electricity, Sweden is pursuing six carbon-neutral alternatives to coal, oil and natural gas. These alternatives are wind power (using wind turbines); wave power (employing various methods of converting ocean wave energy to electric energy); hydroelectric power (routing water in water falls through turbines); solar power (using solar cells); nuclear power (using radioactive heating to turn water into steam which is fed through turbines); and biofuels (fuels derived from organic materials such as crops and forestry by-products). Hydro-electric and nuclear currently dominate, but hydro is already exploited to the full and nuclear raises ecological issues. Wind is therefore seen as the most promising supplement in the future. The journey towards “liquid wind power” began a few years ago when the energy company Svensk Naturenergi was looking for storage options for its wind power. This resulted in a feasibility study of electro-fuels together with, among others, Göteborg Energi and Uddevalla Energi. In 2017, the Swedish company Liquid Wind was started by Claes Fredriksson, who has vast experience with renewable energy and cleantech, and who is the CEO of the company (see also page 10). Renewable hydrogen from wind power combined with carbon dioxide – these are the raw materials which Liquid Wind will draw upon to produce renewable fuel on a large scale for use by ships. The fuel is known as electro-

methanol, or eMethanol. “With electro-fuels from renewable hydrogen, Liquid Wind wants to be at the forefront of industrial change. Thanks to ample wind power potential, Sweden is in an excellent position to make clean fuel,” says Fredriksson. Liquid Wind is focusing on eMethanol mostly for strategic reasons. Technically, the company could be making synthetic diesel or some other fuel, but methanol is a versatile chemical compound with many applications, shipping being one of them. At present, shipping companies around the world lack an environmentally clean alternative to heavy oil. Since their fuel supplies are often purchased on longterm contracts, they offer a stable and bankable market opportunity. “The shipping industry is large enough to be able to provide the commercial weight and security needed to get the large facilities up and running,” says Fredriksson. The shipping industry is comfortable with using methanol, which is a relatively easy fuel to handle. Methanol also fits in well with existing storage and delivery infrastructures. Shipping may prove to be the gateway for introducing electro-fuel in the rest

of the transport sector – on land, at sea and in the air. In addition, both the chemical industry and the manufacturing industry have a growing need for renewable fuels. For example, eMethanol can help reduce the pulp & paper industry’s carbon dioxide emissions. Liquid Wind intends to buy electricity from new wind power facilities, financed through PPA (Power Purchase Agreements). These will be long-term, fixed price agreements valid for 10–15 years. The strategy is that each subsequent eMethanol production facility will establish its own PPA with wind power producers. Along with hydrogen, biogenic carbon dioxide is the other major raw material needed to produce eMethanol. Liquid Wind plans to locate its first

Liquid Wind’s first eMethanol plant is planned for early 2024, probably in Örnsköldsvik. Photo: Övik Energi.

production facility near the biofuelfired combined heat and power (CHP) plant Hörneborgsverket in Örnsköldsvik. If everything goes according to plan, carbon dioxide will be captured and used in electro-fuel production. Every year 70,000 tons of carbon dioxide will be upcycled into carbon neutral fuel, preventing the emission of 100,000 tons of new carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology reaches the energy industry in the future, there may be interesting spin-off deals for energy companies that burn biomass and waste. Channelling carbon dioxide to the production of electro-fuels rather than sending waste to landfill is clearly an idea with a future. Instead of bioCCS with storage, it will be bio-CCU, carbon capture and utilization. To achieve cost-competitive electrofuel, access to low cost renewable electricity and concentrated sources of carbon dioxide is essential. Over the coming years, it will be important to identify and leverage these conditions to increase the supply of carbon neutral fuel, to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and to reduce global carbon emissions.

Photo: Enanuchit/123rf

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E X C L U S I V E

I N T E R V I E W

Electro-fuels Lead the Way to Global Sustainability Interviewed by Peter Berlin

Juergen Puetter. Photo © Alexander Puetter

Juergen Puetter has had a distinguished career converting innovative concepts into successful businesses. He has extensive experience in the development of indoor environmental control products, wind farms and methanolbased gasoline. He is currently the Chairman and CEO of Renewable Hydrogen Canada (RH2C) which is slated to produce low-carbon, renewable fuels in British Columbia, Canada. See also www.rh2ca.ca.

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W I T H

J U E R G E N

uergen was born in Switzerland and grew up in Germany. At the age of 17 he spent one year in California on a scholarship, and then returned to Germany. In 1972 he moved to Canada for good, becoming a Canadian citizen in 1977. “My father was a pilot with Swissair,” says Juergen. “I myself have two airplanes and I fly everywhere I can. Aviation plays a central part of my life.” Juergen has been involved with many businesses, beginning in Montreal where in 1977 he founded a company called Bionaire which made air purifiers. In 1993 he created a company called Hydroxyl Systems which dealt with water and wastewater treatment, also for cruise ships. Then 9/11 happened which killed that business. He went on to found Aeolis Wind Power which produced renewable electric energy from wind farms. “We built the first commercial wind farm in British Columbia,” Juergen explains. “I was able to acquire a large number of wind sites which ultimately led me to set up Blue Fuel Energy, Canadian Methanol Corporation and, most recently, Renewable Hydrogen Canada (RH2C).” Juergen continues: “With the growing requirement for low-carbon fuel, be it liquid or gas, the underlying energy has to come from somewhere. We have these very large and productive wind sites which allow us to produce electricity at low cost. Clean, carbon-free hydrogen is produced by

P U E T T E R

submitting water to electrolysis, and the electrolytic process requires a great deal of electric power. We control several thousand megawatts of low-cost, high-energy wind farm sites in BC.” Juergen founded the company Blue Fuel Energy for making methanol using a combination of natural gas and renewable electricity, and then converting it to low-carbon gasoline. “The technology worked, the economics worked, we had big strategic partners, but the large oil companies closed in on us and wouldn’t allow us onto the market,” he laments. “So we basically had to put the company and the project on the back-burner and instead concentrate on hydrogen which is the focus of RH2C. We have two major projects, one of which amounts to building very large wind farms that would drive electrolyzers to make hydrogen, firmed by BC Hydro Electricity to be inserted into the gas pipeline grid. We are now just waiting for permission to inject the gas into the pipeline.” The other RH2C project is an ocean-based facility which will also facilitate production of hydrogen at a very low cost. The hydrogen can be exported from British Columbia to the most promising hydrogen markets – California, Korea, Japan and China. Juergen: “Your friends at Liquid Wind in Sweden are aiming to make renewable methanol primarily from wind power. We view methanol as a hydrogen carrier. Paradoxically, a litre

E X C L U S I V E

I N T E R V I E W

of methanol contains more hydrogen than a litre of liquefied hydrogen. The beauty of methanol, compared to hydrogen, is that it is a liquid at room temperature. It is no more difficult to transport than water. Methanol is a wonderful hydrogen carrier, in many applications better than using it directly as a fuel.“ The conversion of electricity into hydrogen does not occur without losses – around 20 to 30 percent depending on the conversion method. These losses are released as waste heat which can be fed to very large greenhouses for growing organic food. Food security is seen as essential among First Nation communities in British Columbia, and re-using waste heat in this manner is an ideal method for obtaining both First Nation support and political support for the project. “In our Sundance project we generate approximately 40 megawatt of waste heat, available for greenhouses at no cost,” according to Juergen. “We can heat greenhouses on a massive scale. We think it is a very elegant way to put all the pieces together.” Hydrogen in liquid or compressed form has many uses – to decarbonize the build sector for heating and cooking using gas, and the transportation sector for trucking, to name a few. On the other hand, methanol is the ideal medium for delivery over large distances. Then there is the matter of socalled fuel cells which use gaseous

W I T H

J U E R G E N

P U E T T E R

Hydrogen via electrolysis: Water + electric current = hydrogen gas + oxygen gas + waste heat. Hydrogen from methanol: Methanol + water + heat = hydrogen gas + carbon dioxide. Methanol production: Captured carbon dioxide + hydrogen gas = methanol + water. Electricity from fuel cell: Hydrogen from methanol + oxygen from the atmosphere = electricity + water + heat. Copyright: Renewable Hydrogen Canada Corporation

hydrogen and oxygen from air to produce electricity efficiently, albeit mostly on a small scale so far. If methanol is used as a carrier, then hydrogen is produced by “cracking” or reforming the methanol. We asked Juergen whether methanol-fed fuel cells will make battery-driven electric cars obsolete. “No, there is no competition,” Juergen replied. “Take for example a Tesla electric car. The volume under the hood of the car is empty. If you put a methanol tank and a methanol fuel cell there, you can double the range of a Tesla. You keep the methanol in liquid form in a small tank. You then reform the methanol into hydrogen and feed it into the fuel cell which yields electric power to

charge the battery. The problem with electric cars is that the batteries are expensive and heavy, and they take a long time to charge compared to filling up with conventional, fossil-based gasoline. An innovative company in Scandinavia, Blue World, is proposing to use methanol as a substitute for gasoline. Gas stations can be converted to dispense methanol very inexpensively. If the methanol is renewable, then you have a carbon-neutral hydrogen carrier. In a fuel cell you combine the hydrogen with oxygen from the atmosphere and out comes carbon-neutral electricity to charge the battery.” Summing up, Juergen offers the following thought: “These are exciting times. Electricity is clearly the end fuel of the future. Hydrogen and electricity are totally complementary; they are not in competition with one another. It is true that you can drive a truck directly on hydrogen or methanol, but neither is as efficient as when they are converted to electricity in a fuel cell.”

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Putting Sweden on the Map At Home

Talking to the customers...

Global

Henrik Henriksson – President and CEO of Scania AB, the Swedish manufacturer of heavy commercial vehicles

Henrik Henriksson. Photo © Scania AB

Henrik Henriksson is President and CEO of Scania, a leading supplier of solutions and services for sustainable transport that is driving the shift towards a fossilfree transport system for heavy commercial vehicles. A fierce advocate for sustainability, Henrik is an advisor to the Swedish government and part of its Agenda 2030 delegation. He recently co-authored a book called “Sustainability Leadership: A Swedish Approach to Transforming your Company, your Industry and the World,” available on Amazon. Please tell us about your background. I am the current CEO of Scania after spending close to 25 years in the company. I started off as a so-called management trainee. I have spent most of my career in the Sales and Service functions. Our company

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has roughly 52,000 employees, and half of them are working in our own Retail and Wholesale organisation, near customers. Compared to most of our competitors and other global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), we have integrated forward rather than sideways, i.e. we have not bought our competitors like many of our peers have done over the last 30 years. Instead, we have spent our money integrating forward into our value chain, taking over our distributors, importers and dealers. That is the organisation I have been trained in. Before that, I studied business and economics at the University of Lund and also at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Tell us about Scania today – its product line, ownership, and competitive advantage especially in North America. If I start from a global perspective, Scania today is a company that is positioning itself as the main driver for transforming heavy commercial vehicle transport to become sustainable. We do that by focussing a lot on the here and now – not talking so much about technology that might come in the future, but how do we solve the issue right now. That is why we spend most of our efforts trying to convert both our existing rolling fleet and also new vehicles to run on sustainable biofuels such as bio-ethanol, biogas

and biodiesel. That can really reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90 – 95 percent when produced in a sustainable way. In parallel, we are developing electric vehicles, as well as selfdriving, autonomous vehicles. These are big technology shifts which affect the competitive landscape. We are winning the game by providing higher quality, being more energy efficient, reducing the cost for our customers, and also reducing the CO2 emission for the benefit of society as a whole. We are owned by Traton, a German group that represents the heavy commercial vehicles under the Volkswagen umbrella. In North America we sell our stand-alone industrial and marine engines. We are also in a partnership with the U.S. truck manufacturer Navistar International. Through our close cooperation with Navistar, our technology will be available in North America. From a business viewpoint, does it make sense to develop vehicles for renewable, sustainable fuels? Yes, it does. I am a firm believer that sustainability and profitability go hand in hand. Both in the short and long term this will be a very good investment. To be successful in selling vehicles that can run on

Swedes

renewable fuels – like biofuels produced from corn, sugar cane or wheat, or residuals from the forestry industry – you need to find someone who will produce it, and you need to have stakeholder dialogue to make sure it is not taxed to death which sometimes happens, like in Spain a few years ago where biofuels were taxed just like whisky or vodka or brandy. You also have to find someone willing to sign long-term supply contracts so as to provide predictability for our customers in the transport sector if they are going to use these fuels. We have also realized that we need to talk not only to our customers, but also to our customers’ customers like Walmart, Carrefour, big timber logging companies, big mines. They are not buying any trucks, and we get no revenue from them, but they are designing the logistic systems, and they have demands that lead to a more sustainable transport system. By talking to them we can join our primary customers to basically change the system. Electro-fuels such as electro-methanol are quickly growing in interest. When will Scania have an electromethanol-ready truck and bus? Maybe in the future, but for the moment I think there are many other

... and the customers’ customers. alternatives which are better when it comes to total cost of ownership for the customer. One has to take a “well-to-wheel” perspective – the value chain for producing the fuel, and then the value chain of producing the vehicle, and then the transport that is carried out by this vehicle. If you add up the cost and energy losses, as well as the CO2 footprint in the process, then we think that there are other ways which are better. But if some day there will be a surplus of electric power from wind and solar, and if that energy can be stored and converted into some kind of liquid fuel like methanol or hydrogen, then so much better. We have been running vehicles on methanol since 1989, and that works well. We are also running vehicles on hydrogen in fuel cells which is also working well. But the internal energy losses going from pure electricity, turning it into a liquid fuel, and then running it in a vehicle, amount to almost 50 percent. So then you are basically back to the combustion engine. This is why we believe that battery-driven electric vehicles will have fewer losses in the value chain, and they will be more realistic as an alternative for customers. As for surplus electricity, we would rather like to see it used to make electro-methanol or even hydrogen for industries that are more difficult to run sustainably, like in steel, concrete and fertilizer production. Such industries may be willing to pay a higher price for

these kinds of synthetic fuels than our customers who are running a transport company and could use either biofuels, which are naturally liquid from the beginning, or use battery-electric vehicles. We are not saying that electro-fuelled vehicles will never happen, but we think there are other alternatives in the near term. In which areas do you feel Sweden contributes most globally? We are a small country, but we are punching above our weight. We have a fairly holistic view on society and the planet. Sustainability issues belong in the sweet spot of what we can achieve, not only when it comes to policies, targets and being a role model in “decarbonizing” our society, but also changing the whole industry within which we are operating. Part of my ambition as the CEO of Scania is to not only transform Scania but to transform our whole industry. I think these ambitions are fairly powerful for such a small country in the far north. Are there any other current or upcoming projects or events that you would like to highlight? As one of the first global OEMs of heavy trucks, we launched a series production of battery-electric trucks last month. It is a big step that showcases our technology leadership, as well as our determination to drive the shift towards sustainable transport solutions. So that is exciting! Interviewed by Peter Berlin

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H E RITAG E

Water that made nuclear fission possible

A Tale of Scandinavian Inventiveness and Bravery By Peter Berlin

uring WW II, a liquid known as Heavy Water was “brewed” near the town of Rjukan in southern Norway. No, heavy water is not a brand of Norwegian aquavit but was once an important element in the making of nuclear bombs. It all began in 1905 when a Norwegian hydro-electric power company decided to exploit the 104-metre Rjukan water fall with the aim of generating large-scale electric energy. The result was the world’s biggest hydro-electric power plant at the time, and its primary purpose was to supply electric power to a local factory that made agricultural fertilizer. Thirty years later, a factory for producing hydrogen was built next door to the power plant. Hydrogen is obtained by subjecting ordinary water to power-hungry electrolysis (see Company File on page 10). What the factory operators did not realize at first was that they were also producing small quantities of heavy water as a by-product. It took a future Norwegian Nobel Prize winner to point that out to them. Recall that ordinary water (H2O) is made up of two hydrogen atoms (H2) bound to a single oxygen

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The Rjukan Waterfall lay the foundation for the Vemork Power Plant, which became the largest of its kind in the world when completed in 1911. The Vemork Power Plant now houses the Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum and the World Heritage Centre. Photo: Norsk industriarbeidermuseum

atom (O). Heavy water has the formula D2O where the “D” stands for deuterium. The deuterium atom is a hydrogen isotope where a neutron is attached to the lone hydrogen proton inside the atom. The addition of the neutron makes a deuterium atom roughly twice as heavy as a regular hydrogen atom; hence the term “heavy water.” The idea behind a nuclear device is to bombard uranium with neutrons. The bombardment splits the uranium atoms and precipitates a hail of secondary neutrons in the process. The secondary neutrons are meant to dislodge more secondary neutrons in adjacent uranium atoms, and so forth – in other words, a chain reaction called fission which causes a nuclear explosion. Paradoxically, a substance is needed which slows down the secondary neutrons, so that they can be captured by other uranium nuclei. Heavy water is one such medium. More happily, heavy water is also used as a moderator in some of the nuclear reactors that supply a substantial portion of the electricity used in everyday life – although many ecologists nowadays question

whether nuclear power is such a “happy” resource, after all. The story about heavy water doesn’t end here. In September 1940 the Germans occupied Norway. Having heard about the heavy water production and its potential use for making nuclear weapons, the German army took control of the plant at Rjukan. Following failed efforts by the Allies to put the Rjukan plant out of action, the Norwegian resistance movement managed to disable the plant once and for all. On a cold night in February of 1943, a group of commandos entered the plant unseen as the Germans were changing the guards. The saboteurs planted dynamite charges under the heavy-water-making equipment. By the time the Germans heard the explosions and sounded the alarm, the Norwegian commandos were back on their skis heading for the Swedish border. The sabotage of the Rjukan plant was the subject of a 1948 FrancoNorwegian docudrama, Operation Swallow: The Battle for Heavy Water (“Kampen om Tungtvannet” in Norwegian). In 1965 an American movie on the same theme called The Heroes of Telemark starred Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris. A Norwegian TV mini-series, The Heavy Water War, aired in 2015. Nowadays the name Rjukan is firmly embedded in WW II history.

H E RI TAG E

Swedish artist who defied convention

Hilma af Klint: A Swedish Woman Artist of a Different Stripe By Kitty Hughes

n the YouTube video, curator Iris Muller-Westermann stands in a silent exhibit space in the Malmö Moderna Museet surrounded by colorful oversized canvases, the work of a lesser known artist by the name of Hilma af Klint. The exhibit, scheduled to open last spring, was delayed when the museum was closed due to Covid-19. The Klint Show has been extended to February 21, 2021, with limited public viewing.

Portrait photograph of Hilma af Klint c. 1901

Although several museums have mounted shows of Klint’s work in the past decade, most notably at the Stockholm Moderna Museet (2013) and the Guggenheim (2018), Malmö is exhibiting the most

“No. 3, Youth” – one of the most striking of “The Ten Largest” – contrasts a bold orange background with suggestive spirals and twirls.

comprehensive collection of Klint’s work to date – not a small feat. Klint created a collection of more than 1,000 works and over 125 notebooks, most never seen in her lifetime. Art historians have argued that Klint invented abstract painting, preceding Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian by several years. Ironically, Klint chose to exhibit her more conventional, naturalistic work at major exhibits in Stockholm (1911) and Malmo (1940), where abstract works by Wassily Kandinsky were shown alongside hers. The public had no idea that Klint had started experimenting with abstraction five years earlier. Hilma af Klint was born in Stockholm in 1862, the fourth of five children in a family of some means. She attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1800s. Klint founded a group of women artists called “The Five,” who held seances and tracked their experiences in notebooks. Klint’s resulting

Temple Paintings (1906 – 1915) explored her spiritualist leanings in a bold new abstract format. The visible world consists of dualities – for example, dark, light; masculine, feminine; good, evil; but these polarities can reveal unifying truths. Klint had the ambition and drive to paint large, at a time when women were supposed to do watercolors on small easels in the parlor room corner. A group of works called “The Ten Largest” are over 10½ feet high and almost 8 feet wide. In 1917 she completed the Atom series, drawn by scientific discoveries that revealed a world not observable with the naked eye, of atoms, subatomic particles, electromagnetic waves and x-rays. Klint depicted invisible wave patterns and lively curlicues to convey mysterious hidden sources of matter. According to Peter Schjeldahl, in “Out of Time: Hilma af Klint’s Visionary Paintings” (The New Yorker, October 22, 2018), Theosophist Rudolf Steiner visited Klint’s studio in 1908 and “told Klint to give up otherworldliness […] She all but stopped work for the next four years and […] never recovered the selfless focus and intensity of her temple pictures […]” (p. 93) According to other accounts, Klint met Steiner in 1920 in Switzerland where she joined his newly formed Anthroposophical Society. She spent time in Switzerland from 1921 – 1930 and left no paintings after 1925. Perhaps she thought she had painted quite enough. Klint died in Djursholm, Sweden, in 1944, leaving her entire estate to her nephew.

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[Lifestyle]

Top Sju

cactuses as an alternative to the traditional tree. Finish by decorating your Christmas tree with plants and flowers.

Lucia Day is celebrated on December 13. Schools and workplaces in Sweden are preparing to celebrate the old tradition. Children and adults alike honor the Sicilian Saint and the light she brings by singing songs and passing out saffron buns and ginger snaps. A modern Lucia train includes a Lucia dressed in a white gown with a red ribbon around her waist and a wreath with lit candles in her hair. She is followed by hand maidens (tärnor), star boys (stjärngossar), Christmas elves (tomtar) and Gingerbread men (pepparkaksgubbar).

Royal Swedish Opera. Photo © Kungliga Operan/Markus Gårder

1920 Swedish Television’s 2020 Christmas calendar Mirakel premieres on Swedish Television SVT on December 1. In Mirakel, two girls Mira (Sarah Rhodin) and Rakel (Bibi Lenhoff ) living a hundred years apart change bodies and travel in time. Mira in Rakel’s body is faced with handling life as a wellbehaved girl in 1920, while Rakel is shocked when confronted with modern times. Additional actors include comedians Johan Glans and Babben Larsson. Screenwriters are Peter Arrhenius, Sara Young and Fredrik Agetoft. Calle Åstrand directs.

11 Businessman, hotel and property developer Petter Stordalen has been given the great honor of designing a suite at the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi in northern Sweden. Together with Ice Hotel’s creative director Luca Roncoroni, Stordalen will create an art suite of ice and snow. What the art suite will look like is a secret for now, but the design is ready and the building of the suite will begin shortly. The hotel will be open for guests on December 11.

3 Leksands Knäckebröd, a Swedish family business that bakes crispbread, has released three Christmas crispbreads this year. Enjoy the classic rectangle-shaped “Årets julknäcke” flavored

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Swedish Press | Dec 2020/Jan 2021 20

with kale and all-spice (kryddpeppar), or Leksand’s traditional round “Julknäcke”. Also available this season is Leksands Tre Kullor “Tunnknäcke” with Christmas spices and wort (vört).

2020 Nordic plant company Plantagen recently released its seasonal report of the trendiest plants and flowers this Christmas. Plantagen’s report showed that classic poinsettias remain a favorite. However, many Christmas flowers, including poinsettias and amaryllis, are becoming popular in non-traditional colors, such as white and orange instead of classic red. Bringing nature such as plants and flowers into your home is popular, as is decorating with wreaths. Plantagen’s report showed that people like to invest in sustainable and certified (“kravmärkt”) Christmas trees. Also fashionable are juniper bushes, cypresses or

31 Welcome the new year with a New Year’s concert on the Royal Swedish Opera’s big stage in Stockholm on December 31. Participants include some of Sweden’s most talented soloists, singers from the Royal Opera Choir and students from the Stockholm University of the Arts. Enjoy works such as Habanera from Carmen and Rosina’s Cavatina from The Barber of Seville. Sian Edwards conducts. The Royal Swedish Opera currently welcomes an audience limited to a maximum of 50 people.

90 Good news! Despite the ongoing pandemic, Sweden’s annual long-distance crosscountry ski race “Vasaloppet” is going to take place. Elite skiers, as well as thousands of amateur skiers, will compete in the 90-kilometer -long race between Sälen and Mora in March next year. Organizers are following safety guidelines, and numerous precautionary measures are in place.

[Lifestyle] Science A Green Game-changer By Anne Kvist

With a worldwide focus on finding alternatives to fossil fuels, the methanol fuel cell technology plays a vital part in the green transition.

ack in October 2018, Blue World Technologies was founded with the purpose of developing and manufacturing methanol fuel cell systems for a variety of industries including the transportation sector. Blue World Technologies is located in Aalborg, Denmark which is a hotspot for green energy technology such as Power-to-X technologies. Aalborg University is also located in the same city and is ranked as the best university in Europe within the field of engineering. The idea of working with liquid methanol instead of gaseous fuel for the Blue World fuel cells originated from the challenges there would be by having to introduce a gaseous fuel into a fuelling infrastructure that has been producing, storing, distributing, and selling liquid fuel for more than a century. Methanol is a high-density energy carrier which is liquid at atmospheric pressure, making it simple and cost-effective to refuel and store in large volumes, and it is already widely available around the world. Compared to hydrogenpowered fuel cells, a methanol fuel cell system eliminates some of the

Methanol fuel cell production. Photo: Blue World Technologies, www.blue.world

difficult challenges linked to handling and distribution, infrastructure investments, and low volumetric energy density. Methanol, on the other hand, is an easy-to-use e-fuel, as it is a liquid fuel providing the same convenient refuelling experience we have today with gasoline and diesel vehicles. At the same time, methanol is a fuel that allows integration and reuse in the existing world-wide infrastructure. Also, methanol is a fuel that can be produced from green sources, and if that is the case the fuel will be CO2 neutral from a wellto-wheel perspective. Therefore, it is a safe and sound alternative to fossil fuel and can contribute to the green transition in multiple industries around the world.

Retiring the combustion engine

With the aim to make a significant difference in the world when it comes to climate change and air pollution, Blue World Technologies is set out to commercialise the fuel cell technology so it can benefit the climate and environment around the globe. The methanol fuel cell technology has great potential in several markets such as maritime, heavy-duty, stationary, and passenger

vehicles when direct electrification is not possible or feasible. As a green and clean alternative to combustion engines and diesel generators, the methanol fuel cell technology provides multiple benefits such as cost-savings and CO2 reduction â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or even a CO2 neutral operation when running on green methanol. At the same time, the technology eliminates the emission of nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, and particle matter. This is an important factor alongside the climate challenges, as 91 percent of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population lives in areas where the air pollution exceeds WHO guidelines. One of the biggest offenders for this is the transportation sector. A methanol fuel cell system is equipped with an onboard reformer converting the liquid methanol into a hydrogen-rich gas. The fuel cell converts the reformate gas into electricity feeding an electric motor that could, for example, be powering a passenger car. The combination of onboard reforming and the high-temperature proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology results in a system with high electrical efficiency and many other benefits which will push the global green transition in the right direction.

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Swedish Press | Dec 2020/Jan 2021 21

Hemma hos

Volta Trucks Unveils World’s First Electric 16-tonne Delivery Vehicle

[Design]

By Kristi Robinson

lectric cars are now commonplace, but large transports have been reliant on fuel-powered engines, up until now. Enter Sweden’s Volta Zero, the world’s first fully electric 16-tonne delivery vehicle. Entrepreneur and Volta Trucks founder, Carl-Magnus Norden, recognized the impact of heavy goods vehicles (HGV) on air quality in big cities and set out to do something about it. With a range between 150 and 200 km (95 – 125 miles), the Volta Zero is designed for parcel and freight deliveries within cities. It runs purely on electricity and has no tailpipe emissions. Though definitely an achievement for an HGV, it is just the beginning of Volta Zero’s ingenuity – setting out to be the most sustainable truck in the world. On a trail of firsts, the truck is the first in the world to use carbon neutral body panels made from flax fiber and biodegradable rapeseed oil resin composite. Performance-wise, the material matches the weight and stiffness of typical carbon fiber panels, but from an environmental

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Swedish Press | Dec 2020/Jan 2021 22

perspective Volta Zero really stands out. It is estimated that the manufacture of these composite panels will eliminate 180,000 tonnes of CO2 by 2025. Moreover, while traditional HGV materials are sent to landfill at the end of the vehicle’s lifespan, the plan for Volta Zero is to burn the composite panels for thermal energy. While Volta Zero has made sustainability a priority by considering the complete life cycle of their truck, it is safety that matters most. Norden says that in London 23 percent of pedestrian and 58 percent of cyclist fatalities involve a heavy goods vehicle, even though they only account for 4 percent of road miles. Again, Volta Zero stepped out of the box and looked at how they could best redesign the HGV to change all this. With electric vehicles there is no need for an internal combustion engine, so this frees up a lot of space that would be otherwise limited by a large front engine. Capitalizing on this, Volta Zero has put the driver in the center of the cab, in a low position. Placing the driver at 1.8 meters above ground – about the same height as pedestrian, cyclist, and other vehicular traffic – makes it much

easier for visual communication between the Volta Zero driver and the world outside. The cab itself is designed in a glass house style, minimizing blind spots and giving the driver a 220-degree view. Visibility is enhanced by a rear-view camera instead of mirrors, along with a 360-degree birds-eye camera. To reduce driver error and distraction, the cab is designed to reduce cognitive overload. The user interface is intuitive; important information is shown on a central display, and other features like lights, climate control, and media are located on touch screens on either side. Volta describes the experience comparable to driving a premium car rather than a typical commercial vehicle. Aiming to participate in the vision for zero-emission cities around the world, the Volta Zero design could have an impact beyond the company’s own fleet, paving the way for other truck manufacturers. On track to have their first prototype by the end of this year, Volta Zero’s pilot fleet will do trials in Europe in 2021 and begin production in 2022. Photos © Volta Trucks

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Treats

From Mandelbiskvier to Havreflarn By Judi Lifton

mmersed in the Swedish culture since childbirth, I heard endless stories about my grandparents. How my dad’s father was on the road as a young boy going from town to town to deliver his immigrant father’s Swedish newspaper. And how my mother’s father Oscar (from Dalarna) came in on the train from Ellis Island to St. Paul one wintry night, only to encounter a postman who knew a relative of Oscar’s. After travelling through harrowing snowy conditions, he was safely delivered to the home of his mother’s cousin. I spent the first years of my life reveling in the Swedish traditions, listening to the weekly local Swedish hour and hearing my mother sing and my uncle preach in their parents’ native tongue. Mother had a Swedish women’s choir and helped direct the Santa Lucia festival for many years. I never could have been the Saint wearing a ring of lit candles. They only selected blonds … and I was reddish brown. My closest ties to my ancestors are baking and Swedish décor. I have many Tomten-hangings in my lake house, Dala horses on the wall, and what I call a Swedish-Industrial kitchen (that’s my name for it). Up until my young teenage years, when we lived in a Scandinavian town in Minnesota, we made our own Swedish sausage (potatiskorv). I did the grinding or held the casings onto the chute. We also made our own head cheese (sylta). Uncle Myron (who

Hemma hos

à la Judi

was Norwegian) and Aunt Toots (Swedish, Dad’s sister) were farmers nearby and thus we had all the ingredients we needed. After relocating to Minneapolis, the “from-scratch” delicacies stopped. We began a different metropolitan lifestyle and bought our sausage and head cheese from Ingebretsen’s Scandinavian Foods. Mom organized a Swedish choir and Santa Lucia event and joined the Swedish Institute. Our family’s spoken Swedish dwindled to singing the hymn Tryggare kan ingen vara. I became the family cookie-

Almond Macaroons Ingredients: • 4 large egg whites • One 14-ounce bag of sweetened shredded coconut • ½ cup sugar • 1 (7 oz.) tube of almond paste • One pinch of salt

Judi Lifton’s mother.

meister, and after many years am still dubbed “The Baker.” I now live in Ohio; my any-occasion present is baking cookies and sending or delivering them to relatives and friends. Here are two recipes that are easy to make and delicious to taste. Enjoy!

Mandelbiskvier Preparation: Place almond paste in freezer, preheat oven to 325 F, and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper (I make the macaroons small, so use two sheets). Before whisking egg whites, grate the frozen paste onto wax paper so it is available when done with whisking (I use an electric hand mixer). Whisk until frothy and fold in the almond paste and sugar/salt. Use fingers or 2 teaspoons to put macaroons on the sheet. Bake until brown which will be around 20 – 25 minutes depending on size of macaroons. Dip in chocolate if you so wish.

Oatmeal Lace Wafers Ingredients: • ½ cup butter • ¾ cup sugar • 1 teaspoon cinnamon • 1 cup of oatmeal • 2 Tablespoons of sifted (I don’t) flour • 1 teaspoon of baking powder • 1 egg

Havreflarn Preparation: Melt butter (I use a casserole dish so don’t need any other dish). Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients until blended. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Only make one sheet at a time to check size and spreading of the wafers. Drop batter by teaspoon onto cookie sheet, 3 inches apart. Bake at 375 F for 6 – 8 minutes or until golden brown. Leave until cool and remove from parchment. Alternatively, remove when hot (don’t burn your fingers); using the round wooden handle of a spoon, quickly wrap around the handle to make a tube.

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Road to 2045

New Technologies to Mitigate Global Warming By Jakob Lagercrantz

“N

öden är uppfinningarnas moder” goes a Swedish saying which translates as “Necessity is the mother of invention”. Faced with the climate crisis, several new fuels are entering the market. One such example is electro-fuels, where electricity is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is then combined with carbon dioxide to make drop-in hydrocarbons like diesel and gas (methane). Imagine combining electricity and carbon emissions to make a fuel. It sounds too good to be true. The bottleneck is the availability of easily recaptured carbon dioxide. Pollution as a limiting factor – now, there is a paradox! With the strong growth of sun and wind power, we now at times have a surplus of locally generated electricity which the grid has problems transporting. Since it is difficult to

store electricity for a longer period of time, electro-fuel is a way to store and transport the energy that otherwise cannot be utilized. Another new fuel is Recycled Carbon Fuels (RCF) that use discarded, non-recyclable waste to produce fuels or chemicals. Here again is a technology exploiting what we have limited ways to dispose of. Both of these fuels have one thing in common: they are relatively expensive to produce, at least while the technology is new. To be competitive, they need

the tax levied on carbon-emitting alternatives to be high. And we need business entrepreneurs who are willing to innovate, since we cannot solve the climate crisis with the technologies of yesterday, or indeed today. But there are challenges. The technology used for these new fuels demands a lot of electricity, and this in a decade where we see a fast-growing demand for electricity. The rapidly increasing number of electric vehicles; large industrial projects where carbon fuels are replaced with hydrogen and electricity; and large server halls for accelerating digitalization – all these applications demand electricity which needs be produced in an affordable and environmentally acceptable way. Another challenge is not to let our guard down, not to believe that some miracle technology will neutralize climate change. There are no such miracle cures; we need to be persistent in pursuing every possible solution. The key is to allow a multitude of solutions which together generate the emission reductions that we need. On the positive side, there is no real competition between the greener alternatives – the need is simply too big. The introduction of new technologies gives us hope for a faster way to mitigate global warming. One third of the recently approved EU Recovery Fund of 750 billion euros will be allocated to green recovery. With the prospect of a new American administration soon in place, and with the US re-joining the Paris Accord, we will have a more united global policy in place to support innovation. The Swedish 2030-secretariat was formed to support the decarbonization of the transport sector in Sweden. The secretariat is independent from political parties and technical solutions.

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Swedish Press Connects

Cleantech Opportunities for Canadian Companies

Canada and Sweden working together towards a green and clean future

he Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, now in its 125th year, is proud to assist small- and medium sized businesses in their international market expansion. Inga-Lill Olsson is Trade Commissioner responsible for the cleantech sector in Sweden and keeps an eye on this market for opportunities to be explored by Canadian companies. “I am very impressed with the vast variety of Canadian innovation in this sector”, she says. “Both Sweden and Canada rank very high when it comes to cleantech innovation according to the Global Cleantech Innovation Index that aims to predict where new cleantech companies are expected to emerge in the next ten years.” Sweden hosted the very first UN meeting on the environment in Stockholm in 1972. At that time, a lot of the environmental policy work in Sweden was focussed on protecting the water. As a result, many waste-water facilities were established around that same time. These plants are now being refurbished and upgraded to meet new pollution challenges such as pharmaceuticals and micro-plastics in the effluents. A number of Canadian technologies are available for the efficient treatment of water and waste-water and the protection of our important water resources. Some of these technologies have spun off water-related research in Canada – for example, at the Universities of Guelph and Waterloo. This leading research was recognized earlier this year when Dr. John Cherry, Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo, won the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize. Today, the focus of Sweden’s environmental policy work is on mitigating greenhouse gases and on moving

Cleantech Forum Europe 2019 in Stockholm. Photo Credit: Dennis Erixon

towards a circular economy. The goal set by the Swedish government is to become carbon neutral by 2045. In the so-called “Fossil Free Sweden” initiative, industry has joined the dialogue and produced roadmaps with their views toward reaching this goal. In July this year, the Swedish government adopted a circular economy strategy. According to the Swedish Minister for Environment and Climate, this strategy is another important step toward the goal of becoming the first “fossil free welfare nation”. Opportunities for Canadian cleantech companies present themselves in many of the areas identified via the Swedish industry roadmaps and the strategy for a circular economy – for example, Canadian technologies that facilitate the reuse of materials in plastic products, tires and batteries; and Canadian solutions that increase efficiency by optimising energy systems as well as industrial processes in its use of both energy and raw materials. Other examples of Canadian solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions include advanced biofuels; fuel cell and hydrogen technologies; and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies, to name a few. CETA, Canada’s free trade agreement with the EU, also provides for new opportunities to access this favourable commercial market and deepen the strong, like-minded relationship between Canada and Sweden as we work together towards a green and clean future.

The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) helps companies navigate the complexities of international markets and make better business decisions. Learn more at www.tradecommissioner.gc.ca.

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Swedish Press | Dec 2020/Jan 2021 25

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Swedish Press Connects

Association of Swedish Teachers and Researchers in America

Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota By Ursula Lindqvist, Chair, Department of Scandinavian Studies

wedish names, customs, and cultural symbols still abound at Gustavus Adolphus College, which today is a thriving liberal arts college of about 2,300 students in rural St. Peter, Minnesota, 75 miles south of the Twin Cities. Among other things, the college boasts a 125-acre arboretum named for the Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus; a newly renovated, stateof-the-art science building named for Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel; and the Barbro Osher Svenska Huset, a residential dormitory for students interested in Swedish and Sweden. The college celebrates a Festival of St. Lucia every year in December in Christ Chapel at the center of campus, and its annual Nobel Conference – which brings some of the greatest minds in a given research area to campus for a multi-day, public symposium – is the only event of its kind outside of Sweden that the Nobel Foundation allows to use its name. This college was the dream of the Swedish Lutheran immigrants who in 1862 scraped together enough money to found an elementärskola, or secondary school, to train teachers and pastors to serve Swedish immigrant communities. It was a turbulent time. The school’s founding year, 1862, was the same year the U.S.-Dakota War resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people in the region, both settlers and Dakota. Many settlers were farmers who had immigrated from the Nordic region. Still today, quite a few students who come to Gustavus from other parts of the upper Midwest have Nordic surnames. The college has operated at its current location atop a plateau in St. Peter, overlooking the Minnesota River Valley, since 1876, when it adopted its name to honor the Swedish King Gustaf II Adolph (1611-1632) who reigned during Stormaktstiden (the Great Power Period). Swedish language has been taught at Gustavus consistently since its founding,

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Swedish Press | Dec 2020/Jan 2021 26

and in the 1970s additional faculty were hired to offer courses in English on Scandinavian history, literature, and culture. In 1982, the Department of Scandinavian Studies was established and remains today one of the few independent Scandinavian Studies departments in the United States, granting both a major and a minor. Swedish, which is taught from beginning to advanced levels, remains the second most popular language among students at Gustavus (after Spanish) and boasts the largest enrollments of any Swedish program in the country. Scandinavian Studies Professors Glenn Kranking, Kjerstin Moody, and Ursula Lindqvist all recently earned tenure at the college, and Swedish Instructor David Jessup was brought on board in 2014 to meet a rising demand for seats in Swedish language courses. Two thirds of Scandinavian Studies majors at Gustavus also pursue a second major, such as political science, psychology, history, environmental studies, or natural sciences. The interdisciplinary nature of our Scandinavian Studies courses facilitates this. All told, Gustavus offers 72 majors in 25 academic departments and 12 interdisciplinary programs. Our Scandinavian Studies students perform well in academic scholarship and fellowship competitions, and 65 percent of them pursue graduate studies in a wide variety of fields. The greatest challenge facing both the department and the college in the new millennium has been how to remain true to our Swedish immigrant heritage while striving for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in our campus and greater communities. Our Scandinavian Studies courses reflect this striving, for example with new courses on diversity and social change in Scandinavia, Nordic colonialism, and Arctic Scandinavia. www.gustavus.edu/scand-studies

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Swedish Press Connects

Äntligen en ändring i migrationslagen

Nuvarande migrationslag slår mot utlandssvenskar – dags att göra om och göra rätt Stopp för familjesplittring och orimliga försörjningsoch bostadskrav för utlandssvenskar. Det är Svenskar i Världens uppmaning till politikerna inför den nya migrationslagstiftningen. Den tillfälliga migrationslagen från 2016 sätter krokben för svenskar som vill återvända till Sverige med partner och barn från icke-EU/EES-länder. Turligt nog ska den tillfälliga utlänningslagen ersättas av en ny permanent lag den 20 juli 2021.

nligt regeringen ska den svenska migrationspolitiken vara långsiktigt hållbar, rättssäker och human. För att komma fram till en sådan politik tillsatte regeringen i fjol en kommitté med uppgift att ta fram förslag på hur den ska se ut. Deras betänkande är nu ute på remiss, och Svenskar i Världen är en av de organisationer som kommer att svara på den.

Febrilt arbete pågår

Arbetet med att ta fram ett gediget remissvar pågår. Till sin hjälp har Svenskar i Världen ett team på Elison Wahlin Advokatbyrå som hjälper organisationen pro-bono med att nagelfara remissen för att säkerställa att utlandssvenskarnas perspektiv lyfts fram. ”Det är oerhört viktigt att ta vara på det här tillfället. Lika viktigt som att remissen blir genomtänkt är det att

Foto © Pixabay

politikerna kan bilda sig en uppfattning om hur många utlandssvenskar som berörs, och vilka konsekvenser den nuvarande lagstiftningen medför. Vi kommer därför att addera en namninsamling och en mängd berättelser till remissen för att verkligen Cecilia Borglin. Foto: Bengt Säll synliggöra utlandssvenskarnas situation”, säger Cecilia Borglin, generalsekreterare på Svenskar i Världen. Så vilka är då de största utmaningarna med dagens lagstiftning? I korthet handlar det om att familjer behöver splittras under den tid då utlandssvenskens partner ansöker om uppehållstillstånd, och orimliga försörjnings- och bostadskrav gäller för den partner som är kvar i Sverige. ”Om inte den nya lagen tar hänsyn till utlandssvenskarna, riskerar Sverige att gå miste om värdefull internationell erfarenhet och kompetens, eftersom risken finns att utlandssvenskar överväger att avstå från att flytta tillbaka till sitt Sverige – det land som i många fall har investerat i deras omsorg och utbildning, och som är i ett stort behov av internationell erfarenhet och kompetens för att stå sig i den globala konkurrensen”, fortsätter Cecilia Borglin.

Utlandssvenskarnas röst i Sverige

Svenskar i Världen är utlandssvenskarnas röst i Sverige genom att bedriva påverkansarbete och vara remissinstans till nytta för de 660 000 svenskar som arbetar, studerar och bor utomlands, men också för de utlandssvenskar som återvänder till Sverige. För mer information om deras arbete med att påverka migrationslagen och andra utmaningar, besök www.sviv.se.

Summary in English: The immigration bureaucracy facing returning Swedes with foreign spouses and children (see page 27 in the October 2020 issue of Swedish Press) is now the subject of new legislation. The new law will take effect on July 20, 2021 and aims to avoid the situation where families have to live apart while permanent residence applications for foreign family members are processed. SVIV is providing feedback by highlighting for politicians the situation of the 660,000 Swedish expats and their families.

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Swedish Press | Dec 2020/Jan 2021 27

Calendar & Events

A guide to fun and interesting Swedish events outside Sweden

CHICAGO Swedish American Museum 5211 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60640 Tel: 773-728 8111 | info@samac.org www.swedishamericanmuseum.org Dec 5 – Sat starting at 11 am – Julmarknad Online – A schedule of venors will be available on the website. Order either online or stop by the Museum where a selection of items can be bought in the Store. Dec 6 – Sun 1 pm: “Herring and Lutefisk & other fish traditions” by Richard Tellström – join us via Zoom to talk about Swedish and Swedish-American fish traditions. Dec 13 – Sun: St. Lucia – This event is still being planned. Keep your eyes open for information. Dec 19 – Sat 6 pm: Julmiddag To Go – Julmiddag can be picked up at the Museum at a prearranged time.

in New York to his time at Walt Disney Studios and eventual retirement in Maine. Dec 5-6 – Sat and Sun 10 am to 4 pm: Outdoor Christmas Market – During the market we will have live music and warm holiday drinks and treats for sale. A ceremonial Lucia host will be attending the event to greet guests.

OTTAWA Embassy of Sweden Ottawa 377 Dalhousie Street, Suite 305, Ottawa ON K1N 9NB Tel: 613-241 2277 www.swedishembassy.ca The Government has extended the ban of entry to the EU via Sweden until 22 December 2020.

PORTLAND Nordic Northwest Nordia House, 8800 SW Oleson Rd., Portland, OR 97223 | Tel: 503-977 0275 www.nordicnorthwest.org Ongoing through January 12 2021 – ScanFair 2020 comprises of three different elements, including a ScanFair exhibit, a ScanFair guide to the Nordic Holidays, and finally the ScanFair online market from November 29th to December 6th.

MINNEAPOLIS American Swedish Institute 2600 Park Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55407 Tel: 612-871 4907 | www.asimn.org Ongoing through Jan 10, 2021 – Exhibition: An extra/ordinary Holiday in Extraordinary Times. Dec 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20 – Sat and Sun 10 am to 4 pm: Julmarknad On-Site Weekends – While ASI’s largest festival and holiday event is going (mostly) virtual this year, on weekends you’ll find 3 to 4 vendors on-site at ASI outside in the courtyard. Dec 13 – Sun 1 pm: Virtual Lucia Celebration Concert – The ASI Lucia Choir performs traditional music in this magical 20 minute virtual Lucia Choir concert on Zoom. Registration is required.

SEATTLE Swedish Cultural Center 1920 Dexter Ave. N. Seattle, WA 98109 Tel: 206-283 1090 | www.swedishclubnw.org info@swedishculturalcenter.org Dec 4 and 11 – Fri: Julbord dinner. Both in-house or to-go. Dec 18 – Fri: Lutfisk dinner. Both in-house or to-go.

VANCOUVER Scandinavian Community Centre 6540 Thomas Street, Burnaby, BC V5B 4P9 Tel: 604-294 2777 | info@scancentre.org www.scancentre.org Please call 604-294 2777 or e-mail info@ scancentre.org. Visit www.scancentre.org. for COVID updates. Dec 13 – Sun: This year’s Lucia procession will premiere on Sunday December 13 and be broadcast online. Elsa Doxtdator Jansson will be the 2020 Lucia. The recording will be available online and ondemand through the Christmas holidays, into the New Year.

PHILADEPHIA American Swedish Historical Museum 1900 Pattison Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19145 | Tel: 215-389 1776 | info@americanswedish.org | www.americanswedish.org Ongoing through May 2021 – Around the World: The Global Curiosities of Carl Otto Lindberg! This exhibition explores the life of a Swedish-American mining engineer. Ongoing through Mar 2021 – From Fairy Tale to Fantasy: The Art of Gustaf Tenggren – This exhibit charts Tenggren’s career in the United States – from his early successes 8

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National Nordic Museum 2655 NW Market Street, Seattle, WA 98107 Tel: 206-789 5707 | nordic@nordicmuseum.org www.nordicmuseum.org Jan 21 – Thurs 6 to 7 pm: Virtual Lecture: Caring and Curing – Edvard Munch in the Clinic, 1908-09. This talk explores the world of the clinic through Munch's work, revealing not only one artist's experience, but also a new kind of medical institution for caring and curing. WASHINGTON, DC Embassy of Sweden 2900 K Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20007 Tel: 202-467 2600 | www.swedenabroad.com ambassaden.washington@gov.se The Embassy will remain in a modified telework arrangement, offering limited consular services by appointment only. Phone hours are: Mon-Fri 9 am to 4 pm (closed for lunch 12 to 1 pm), 202-467 2600. 18

WINNIPEG Swedish Cultural Assoc of Manitoba Scandinavian Cultural Centre 764 Erin St, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3G 2W4 Tel: 204-774 8047 | www.scandinaviancentre.ca/sweden | Registration by email at svenskclub17@gmail.com Visit the Scandinavian and Swedish webpages for the following interesting posts: The SCC Manitoba 150th Virtual Celebration – displaying the culture and traditions of Nordic Manitobans; Swedish Market – collection of homemade crafts; Virtual Lucia – beautiful view of Lucia in Sweden; Jokkmokk Reindeer Dance – a fun way to get moving and uplift your spirit. Dec 5 – Sat 1 to 4 pm: Santa Claus is coming to the SCC for this year’s drive-by Children’s Christmas Party. Santa and his elves will be handing out treat and craft bags to children ages 0-12. Pre-registration required at sccreservations@shaw.ca. Jan 2021 – Swedish Language Classes have resumed, being held either through ZOOM video conferencing or by phone. Classes continue until Dec 12th; new term to resume in January. Register at svenskclub17@gmail.com for more information. 28

[Ads] and Info Swedish Press Classified BC Organizations Scandinavian Business Club Monthly meetings feature business speakers. Guests and new members welcome. Call SBC: 604-484-8238. Visit us at www.sbc-bc.ca Scandinavian Community Centre Scandinavian Community Centre Beautiful setting for weddings, parties, birthdays, meetings and seminars. 6540 Thomas Street, Burnaby, BC info@scancentre.org Tel: 604-294-2777 www. scancentre.org Svenska Kulturföreningen Ordförande Ellen Petersson 604-970 8708. Kassör är Linda Olofsson, 604-418 7703 www.swedishculturalsociety.ca. Email: swedishculturalsociety.ca @gmail.com Swedish Canadian Village Beautiful Assisted Living Residence & Senior Subsidized Apartment Buildings Located in Burnaby, BC. Tel: 604-420 1124 Fax# 604-420 1175 www.swedishcanadian.ca

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Swedish Heritage in BC 1812 Duthie Ave. Burnaby BC. Laila Axen Tel: 604-526 7464. Visit us at www.swedishheritage.org. E-mail: swedishheritagebc@gmail.com Sweden House Society President: AnnaKarin Törnqvist Vice President: Carina Spencer Treasurer: Carole Walkinshaw, Email: swedenhousechair@gmail.com Swedish Club of Victoria Dinners, Events and Meetings, for information contact Annabelle Beresford @ 250-656 9586 or Swedish Club of Victoria Facebook. Washington Organizations Nordic Museum has moved to a beautiful, brand-new building! In Seattle, 2655 N.W. Market St., Ballard; 206-789 5707. Swedish Club 1920 Dexter Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98109; Tel: 206-283 1090. Open Wednesday evenings for supper and games, Friday for lunch and dinner. Pancake breakfasts on

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Swedish Press Dec 2020/Jan 2021 Vol 91:10

Articles inside

In the Loop

Road to 2045

Science: A Green Game-changer

Hemma Hos

Hilma af Klint: A Swedish Woman Artist of a Differnt Stripe

Top Sju

Heritage

Feature

Heritage

Business

Swedes in the News

Swedish Headlines