01 Sep 2021

Northern Sweden - a world-class green growth zone

World-class competence, innovative strength and clean energy. Northern Sweden is today a dynamic growth region, not least in the area of ​​cleantech.

- It is fantastic to see the development, says Peter Hedman, Project Manager for North Sweden Cleantech.

The term cleantech includes business ideas, companies, products and services in green technology, clean energy and sustainable solutions. North Sweden Cleantech is a regional innovation and export platform in Västerbotten and Örnsköldsvik with the goal of strengthening the region and its companies and developing the market for sustainable growth with green technology and clean energy from northern Sweden.

Over the past ten years, Peter Hedman has seen a major change in the view of sustainability, in northern Sweden as well as around the world.

- From being something you just started talking about, sustainable solutions are now a factor of competition and success. It has become something on everyone's lips.

“Enormous development"

The work with North Sweden Cleantech began on a small scale already in 2013 and the partnership has developed to include 2021 Skellefteå municipality, Umeå municipality and Örnsköldsvik municipality, Region Västerbotten, Bostaden, Vakin, Umeå Energi, Skellefteå Kraft, RISE Processum, Umeå Kommunföretag, Kompetensspridning i Umeå, Skellefteå Science City, Arctic Business and Uminova Innovation. The project is part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

Over the years, the projects have become more and more and with strong support in the region.

- We can show a long-term perspective with our work, and it has been crucial that our partners and financiers think that we do good things and thus give us strong support. Today we collaborate with over 100 companies and organizations. If we count our cooperation with Vaasa and Kokkola in Finland, we are over 200 companies and organizations. It has been a huge development, says Peter.

North Sweden Cleantech has three focus areas: Bioeconomy, clean energy and smart and sustainable cities, areas in which large investments are made today.

- Northern Sweden is a region where it is attractive to exist and therefore a lot is invested here. It creates great opportunities for companies in the region, says Peter.

The bioeconomy is growing in Örnsköldsvik

Helena Näsström is Cluster Manager within North Sweden Cleantech and works mainly with bioeconomy in Örnsköldsvik. It is an area that has grown stronger and stronger the last ten years with companies such as Liquid Wind, which makes methanol from carbon dioxide and wind power, and RISE Processum, which upgrades test environments in biorefinery development with support from the government, which is investing SEK 350 million.

- We no longer need to ask companies if they want to join North Sweden Cleantech - they come to us, she says.

 

Photo: Here at Processum in Örnsköldsvik, they are driving the development for a fossil-free future. Photo: RISE Processum

In Örnsköldsvik, there are also many innovation platforms that support start-ups in the field of bioeconomy.

- We see that the new establishments in Örnsköldsvik are about sustainability and biofuels. It is only green products, where you want to go from the fossil to the fossil-free. This is what generates investment, and we can see how investors push money into some of the companies.

North Sweden Cleantech's role is to create meeting places, for instance for those interested in bioeconomy.

- We are a facilitator who tries to put together the right people with the right skills. I think we do well in all our focus areas, among other things by holding webinars, workshops and international meetings, says Helena.

World leader in clean energy

Clean energy is another area of ​​strength for the region as well as a focus area for North Sweden Cleantech.

- There is a reason why they chose to place Northvolt's production in northern Sweden. It is about access to clean energy with very competitive prices, says Sanna Orellano, Marketing Manager at North Sweden Cleantech in Skellefteå.

Skellefteå has a rich history in the energy area, where Skellefteå Kraft has been involved and led the development in Sweden. The Skellefteå area also has over 100 years of experience in mining, where Boliden has world-leading expertise in metal recycling.

- We take note of this at North Sweden Cleantech. We gather the players and package the opportunities in the region.

Sanna calls sustainable development "the world's most current issue".

- It is great fun to work with issues related to sustainable development. In the start-up of North Sweden Cleantech, awareness of this and what the term cleantech includes was quite low. Today, it is a matter of course to work with sustainable solutions and sustainable development at all levels, for a company to be competitive, she says.

Photo: One of North Sweden Cleantech's strengths is that it brings together the actors on one and the same platform.

Smart and sustainable cities

The work with smart and sustainable cities is a third focus area. North Sweden Cleantech is part of the Smart City Sweden platform, which is a national export and investment platform where examples of smart and sustainable urban solutions are presented and demonstrated to the rest of the world. North Sweden Cleantech represents the whole of northern Sweden in that platform. In addition, projects are underway on climate-neutral cities in Örnsköldsvik, Umeå and Skellefteå, among other places.

 

Photo: Sara culture house in Skellefteå - a sustainable and climate-smart house, built of wood from the region. Illustration: White Architects

Nina Rismalm is an International Business Developer within North Sweden Cleantech.

- We work with small and medium-sized companies from the region in the areas that foreign stakeholders are interested in. It can be a foreign waste company or energy company that wants to look at how we work with energy technology in Sweden. Then we can promote the sale of Swedish environmental technology, she says.

The future thus looks bright, to say the least, in the region when it comes to cleantech. Collaboration is the key to continued development, says Sanna Orellano in summary.

- The important thing is that we continue to collaborate and be seen together. In this region, we are far too small as individual actors to be seen and create value on our own. Collaboration creates more business in the region and is the basis of everything we at North Sweden Cleantech do.

The project North Sweden Cleantech - the climate-smart innovation site of the future is financed by Region Västerbotten, Skellefteå Kraft, Umeå Energi, Skellefteå municipality, Umeå municipality, Örnsköldsvik municipality, Vakin, Bostaden, Umeå Kommunföretag and the European Union's regional development fund.