Science Daily has an article on the world’s oldest living tree - World's Oldest Living Tree -- 9550 Years Old -- Discovered In Sweden.

For many years the spruce tree has been regarded as a relative newcomer in the Swedish mountain region. "Our results have shown the complete opposite, that the spruce is one of the oldest known trees in the mountain range," says Leif Kullman, Professor of Physical Geography at Umeå University. ...

The discovery showed trees of 375, 5,660, 9,000 and 9,550 years old and everything displayed clear signs that they have the same genetic makeup as the trees above them. Since spruce trees can multiply with root penetrating braches, they can produce exact copies, or clones.

The tree now growing above the finding place and the wood pieces dating 9,550 years have the same genetic material. The actual has been tested by carbon-14 dating at a laboratory in Miami, Florida, USA.

Previously, pine trees in North America have been cited as the oldest at 4,000 to 5,000 years old.
In the Swedish mountains, from Lapland in the North to Dalarna in the South, scientists have found a cluster of around 20 spruces that are over 8,000 years old.

Although summers have been colder over the past 10,000 years, these trees have survived harsh weather conditions due to their ability to push out another trunk as the other one died. "The average increase in temperature during the summers over the past hundred years has risen one degree in the mountain areas," explains Leif Kullman.

Therefore, we can now see that these spruces have begun to straighten themselves out. There is also evidence that spruces are the species that can best give us insight about climate change.

TreeHugger reports on Sweden's progress towards a clean energy economy - Sweden to Build 2,000 New Wind Turbines, Aims for 50% Renewables by 2020.

Sweden's Enterprise and Energy Minister Maud Olofsson announced that 2,000 new wind turbines will be built in the in the Scandinavian country over the next 10 years. This would add a projected 10 terawatt hours (TWh) per year of renewable energy generation to the country's grid, which is already very low-carbon because it gets most of its power from nuclear and hydro.

"Sweden has extremely good prospects for rapidly increasing the production of renewable energy, especially from the burning of biofuels, cogeneration plants and windpower," Olofsson wrote in a newspaper column.

Sweden wants about 50% of its electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020 (this would mean more wind, but also more solar and biofuels).

Green Building of the week from Inhabitat is this energy-positive house in Sweden - Energy Positive House to Supply Power to Grid in Sweden.

Karin Adalberth, a doctor of building physics, partnered with local green utility company E. ON when she designed the plans for Villa Akarp, which is being built outside the Swedish city of Malmo. Together, the two worked out a plan where the residence would purchase energy from the utility during Sweden’s dark winter months and sell electricity back to the grid during sunny summer months. If calculations are correct, the house will sell back about 4,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually while only purchasing 2,600 kilowatt-hours, creating a positive net energy ratio.

To achieve such lofty green goals, designers plan to implement a ton of energy efficient technologies into Villa Akarp. For one, wool fiber insulation 5.5 decimeters thick will line the home’s walls–compared to a home with insulation one decimeter thick, the extra lining would save the average family about 75 percent in energy costs. Foam insulation will line the building’s foundation, and triple-glazed windows will prevent air from escaping while also letting in lots of natural light. In terms of heat and hot water, the home will use a combination of Passiv Haus heating concepts (using energy already being generated by appliances and other household items to warm the interior), a solar thermal system, and traditional radiators. During the sunny months, 32 square meters of solar panels will produce power.

The Guardian reports Sweden's right wing government is reversing the decades long trend towards clean energy and is moving back towards the centralised, polluting power generation model - Sweden scraps ban on nuclear power with plan to replace 10 reactors.

The Swedish government plans to reverse a nearly 30-year-old ban on building nuclear power plants, giving the green light to a new generation of reactors. The centre-right government wants the new reactors to be built to replace the country's 10 existing stations.

The decision reverses a 1980 referendum when the majority of voters backed an end to nuclear expansion and the government pledged to phase out nuclear power plants.

The decision by Sweden to back nuclear power contrasts with the nation's careful cultivation of its green image. In 2006, Sweden pledged to replace the use of all fossil fuels by 2020, but nuclear was not part of that plan.

Finland is currently the only country in the EU building a nuclear reactor. Its new Olkiluoto plant is being built in partnership with a consortium led by France's state-owned energy company, Areva. The project has been beset by delays and cost overuns, however, and is unlikely to be completed until 2012, three years behind schedule.

Green building of the week from Inhabitat is this "self contained sustainable city" design from Sweden - Sweden’s Sweeping Green Roofed Hillside City.

Nestled beneath an undulating series of rolling green roofs, Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects New Heden project transforms a vacant city block is a self-contained sustainable city interspersed with cycling paths and walkways. Envisioned as a “green lung” for Gothenburg, Sweden, the development will introduce a beautiful expanse of fresh green space to an area currently consumed by parking lots and football fields.

Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects‘ New Heden project aims to establish a vital new community in an underutilized site. The development will house 10,000 people in 5000 new apartments and will provide commercial zones, sports facilities, and parks, reducing the distance that residents need to travel each day.

We love how the development rises up from the earth in a series of gently flowing hills, forming a lovely terrain laced with pathways and plenty of perfect spots for picnics. These green roofs provide excellent insulation to the buildings beneath while absorbing rain that can be purified and reused as household water. The project also includes plans for the local cultivation of fruits and vegetables, and after development the site will feature a much greater biomass than before.

Green building of the week from Inhabitat is this strange looking Swedish cabin - SPOOKY ECO HOUSE: The Dragspelhuset Accordion House.

While this cabin looks spookily lizard-like, its unusual structure was created in response to Swedish environmental building regulations. The solar-powered off-grid cabin is owned and designed by Maartje Lammers and Boris Zeisser of 24H Architecture as a family summer vacation retreat in southern Sweden’s Glaskogen nature reserve. The locals of the lakeside area affectionately call the house “Dragspelhuset,” or Accordion House because a room of the house is capable of extending outwards over the nearby stream.

TreeHugger has a post on the expanding use of biogas in Sweden - From Kitchen Scraps to Biogas - Stockholm Embraces Garbage Disposals.

Previously, a high annual fee discouraged apartment dwellers from thinking about owning a garbage disposal - municipal engineers were worried about gas build-up in sewer lines and other blockages from running liquid garbage through regular pipes. So only about 40 apartments in the entire city went through the expensive hassle of getting and owning a garbage disposal. In the U.S. 50 percent of ALL homes have a disposal - it increases a home's water consumption and electricity usage and forms more of a burden to municipal sewage treatment. Why are the Swedes encouraging it, then? They want to mine the waste stream for biogas.

An increase in organic material in Swedish sewage lines is now considered a positive, so the fee for the garbage disposals reduced by more than half to U.S.$65 dollars - purchase and installation of a machine will still cost around $800.

In Sweden there's a national goal of 35 percent of waste material being composted or by 2010. That may be a tough goal to reach as many people toss everything into the trash, knowing that most of it gets burned in large incinerators Sweden invested in in the 70's and 80's. One study showed Swedes tossing 225 pounds of edible food each year.

By using garbage disposals, Stockholm Water reckons they can turn that waste into methane gas. Scores of methane stations dot the Swedish roadsides and methane is used in many city buses - though Volvo discontinued its dual methane/gas powered car two years ago. Stockholm Water has now tested the pipes, so to speak, and determined that the system can absorb a lot more of the waste stream in the municipal system and turn it into methane gas, so that an even larger goal recommended by the Green party could be reached. The Greens say 70 percent of the waste stream could be either composted or turned to biogas by 2015. Today Stockholm Water can produce 8 billion cubic meters of methane, though just half of it goes to vehicles.

Last year demand for methane rose 18 percent, but in Stockholm it rose a full 40 percent. Stockholm can't make enough of its own biogas currently, and imports from nearby municipalities. Sweden's Environmental Protection Agency lists biogas as the most environmentally friendly vehicle fuel - there's even the biogas-powered train.

Design Zen has a post about an interesting Swedish idea to make smart meter data visible to homeowners without forcing them to check a screen - a lamp which signals if their energy usage is above or below target each time it is turned on - .

Spark Lamp by Beverly Ng is a modern lighting products that helps and educate home owner in energy conservation. The main idea is to educate home users towards a sustainable lifestyle, if you understanding domestic energy consumption, for sure you can play your role and help reduce the energy crisis. That’s the concept behind Beverly Ng elegent Spark Lamp, a solar-powered lamp that educate home users reduce and minimize the energy consumption.

Spark Lamp is modern lighting that fully optimized the use of solar power to operated. The lamp collects solar energy during the day and emit light during the night, what you need to do is placed it up-side down on a windowsill to collect the sun’s rays during the day, which are then converted into energy to light up your room at night. This lamp functioned and fully equipped with 1 RGB LED, Wi-Fi module, tilt switch with biopolymers casing to protect the lamp.

This project was created in reaction to the Swedish’s government response to the energy crisis. In Sweden, future homes will be installed with smart meters that will provide real-time feedback to homeowners on the internet. Interactive Institute felt that providing the data on a website was not engaging enough; therefore, the Spark lamp was developed to enhance the experience by extending the feedback beyond the computer screen and into everyday objects in the home. Users enter a monthly energy consumption goal on the site according to their motivation (money, carbon footprints, discounts, etc).

Every time the user turns on the lamp, it activates the tilt switch and turns on the wi-fi module where it reads the home’s energy data. Spark would pulse (3 sec) the appropriate color of their energy consumption (red-below target, yellow- on target, green - above target) and notifies the users of their consumption so far that month. After the 3 sec pulse, the light then turns to a regular white light lamp. This daily usage will help create a habit and help home owners understand their energy consumption pattern. On the website users will find tips and resources on energy conservation. Once the user has developed a more sustainable consumption, Spark can still be used as a lamp.

Cleantechnica has a post on a fast train service in Sweden with a range of energy efficiency features - Sweden Rolling Out 183 MPH High-Speed Green Train.

The Green Train, or Gröna Tåget, will cut energy use on rail lines by 30 percent through lowered operational costs and journey times. Top speeds reached 183 MPH on a test run.

Best of all, the Green Train can operate on the current rail infrastructure. That means there’s no need to lay down new tracks.

Energy saving measures on the train include a permanent magnet motor to increase propulsion chain efficiency and a system that saves up to 15 percent of traction energy by assisting drivers with speed and traction force information.