There are many great reasons to invest in the Stockholm region. Stockholm is innovative and globally connected, and has a supportive and stable business environment. Stockholm has received several honoring awards, and among the most recent one is the award for Region of the future in Europe 2012/2013, by fDi Magazine. In addition to this, Stockholm is home to one of Europe’s most advanced and innovative cleantech clusters.

Why invest in the Stockholm region?
Investing in the Stockholm region means gaining unique advantages. A few examples of Stockholm’s competitiveness within cleantech are

• Stockholm having the largest number of innovative cleantech companies in Scandinavia.
• Stockholm being the leader in technology development for biogas, ocean power and smart grids.
• Stockholm having large public procurements and growing demand for new fuels.

The region also has high environmental goals – the city council has the ambitious target of making the city fossil fuel-free by 2050. For example the greenhouse gas emissions have already been reduced by 25 % since 1990, and 95 % of the municipal waste is recovered or recycled.

Within the Stockholm region there are several cleantech projects under construction. We present a few of them below:

Stockholm Royal Seaport – an eco-city district under development in Stockholm
Stockholm Royal Seaport is one of the most extensive urban development areas in Europe. Upon completion in 2030, the area will consist of 10-15 000 residences/homes and 30 000 job sites. The area is intended to be a model for sustainable urban planning. Stockholm Royal Seaports environmental goals are that

• By 2030, free of fossil fuels and climate positive
• Stockholm Royal Seaport will be adapted to future climate change.
• High environmental and sustainability goals for all environmental sectors

To make it easier for the people and the business in the area to act more sustainable, the smart grid system is being developed. The system is a series of integrated technical solutions, including the possibility of an increased use of renewable energy sources, the creation of buildings that have been ‘activated’ to be more energy efficient and to give its inhabitants a greater degree of control, reduced emissions, not least of which in the harbour, and by installing infrastructure to support the large-scale use of electric vehicles.

The development of the smart grid system is lead by Fortum, together with ABB, KTH, and several other partners. The system includes not only technical and information solutions, but also the adoption of new market rules and ways of living.

Hammarby Sjöstad – a unique environmental project in Stockholm
It has only taken a few years for Hammarby Sjöstad to become one of the world’s highest profile examples of Sustainable City Development, mentioned in specialist publications worldwide. The residents in Hammarby Sjöstad are a part of an eco-cycle called the Hammarby Model. It handles energy, waste, sewage and water for both housing and offices. The goal is to create a residential environment based on sustainable resource usage. Hammarby Sjöstad is visited by over 13,000 decision makers and specialists in the field every year, making it one of Stockholm’s most important destinations. Once completed, Hammarby Sjöstad will have approximately 11,500 apartments for just over 26,000 residents and a total of around 36,000 people who will live and work in the area.

Högdalen – a new hub for waste and energy cluster
The industrial district of Högdalen might further strengthen the Stockholm regions position as a leader in cleantech. The district is a new centre for environmental and clean energy technology within waste management and combined heat and power generation. A new advanced R&D centre for tests of innovations in the recycling, waste and energy related technologies is launched and open to foreign co-operations. The vision of the area also includes e-transports, improvement of energy efficiency of all local businesses as well as retrofitting of the real estate stock are planned within the next 5 years. This project is developed in a close co-operation with the academy and the industry (Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm University, IVL Swedish Environmental Institute) as well as a large number of waste, recycling and energy related companies.

The Stockholm region consists of 50 municipalities that closely co-operate in promoting the region. It contains of hundreds of cutting edge clean technology companies who are looking for international collaboration. In 2011, 29 Swedish cleantech companies received over 62,3 million euro in private funding. That equals 54 % of the total Nordic amount. These positive results are determined by the activity of local venture capital funds such as Sustainable Technologies Fund, Alder, Industrifonden, Midroc New Energy, Northzone and Creandum. The continuous and targeted work that has been done within Stockholm´s innovation ecosystem in the past years is a big contributor to these results.

Please find examples of innovative Cleantech companies in the Stockholm region:

myFC
myFC is a fuel cell technology company that develops energy solutions for power­ing portable electronics such as cell phones and laptops. Its first product, PowerTrekk, is both a portable battery pack and a fuel cell. Just insert a PowerPukk fuel pack and add water. myFC’s planar technology holds the world record among fuel cells in power density with over 600mW/cm3. myFC has interacted with several of the largest mobile phone, charger and battery manufacturers in the world. Several pilot projects are in the pipeline. The company has attracted 75 MSEK in financing and sales start in 2012 in 12 markets.

Target market: Charger product solutions for Outdoor Recreation, Disaster Relief and Emerging Markets. www.myfc.se

SEEC
Most of the world’s energy consumption is used to heat or cool buildings. Today, a lot of the produced heat and cold is wasted. SEEC has developed an energy system that effectively harnesses the excess energy by storing it across seasons and reusing it. The system can decrease the energy consump­tion associated with heating and cooling buildings with up to 80 percent. SEEC saves its clients hundreds of thousands of euro’s every year. The company will install an energy storage facility in Norra Djurgårdsstaden in Stockholm.

Target market: All types of large buildings, such as shopping centers, hospitals and sports facilities. www.seec.se

PEE POOPLE
Peepoople offers a groundbreaking new sanitation solution to help solve the ongoing sanitation crisis. The Peepoo is a single-use self-sanitation biodegradable toilet in the form of a small bag that after use turns into valuable fertilizer. Following a successful trial on the use of the Peepoo sanitation solution with flood-affected communities in Sindh in Pakistan during November 2011, UN-HABITAT Pakistan and Peepoople have agreed to continue their collaboration. This will include working towards implementation of the Peepoople Humanitarian Response Model in order to serve a minimum of 10,000 families, about 70,000 individual beneficiaries, with sanitation during 2012-2013.

Target market: Emergency relief, refugee camps, urban slums, schools. www.peepoople.com

Above we have mentioned several great reasons to invest in the Stockholm area. In addition, to make the investment process as effortless as possible, you are free to use Stockholm’s business development services. Invest Stockholm assists and informs corporate investors about business opportunities in the Stockholm region. We also provide advice and practical assistance, free of charge, to companies setting up or expanding business operations in Stockholm. Visit www.investstockholm.com for more information.