When most of us think of Sweden our first thoughts are probably of Abba, flatpack furniture, or possibly even meatballs. However, for those with a special interest in sustainable energy, their thoughts may well turn to Hyllie – a district on the outskirts of Malmö, which is a testbed of innovation in climate-smart urban development. But how did Hyllie become a driving force in energy efficiency, and what can it teach the rest of the world about the future of sustainable living?
As one of Sweden’s largest cities, you might assume that Malmö has long been a bustling hive of creativity, but that couldn’t be further from the case. Until relatively recently, the city had a reputation for being a post-industrial backwater – but all that changed in 2000, sparked in part by the opening of the Öresund bridge. It connects Sweden with Denmark, and helped power an economic transformation in Malmö by improving links to the rest of Europe. Now, 25 years later, the city is at the forefront of sustainable living, with Hyllie the jewel in its crown.
Just a six minute journey from Malmö’s central train station, Hyllie is built on a greenfield site. Work to create a new residential and commercial development there began in 2010, and the aim is that it will be home to 25,000 residents by 2040.
The fact Hyllie has become something of a blueprint for smart cities of the future is no accident, but by design. “The city of Malmö approached E.ON in the early stages of city development and started the dialogue: could we utilise Hyllie as a testbed? How can we enable energy in a sustainable way and what kind of sustainable technology do we need in order to do so?” says Peder Berne, from E.ON’s sustainable cities team. What emerged was an innovative public-private partnership between the city of Malmö, E.ON and VA SYD, the publicly owned water and sewerage company. Together, they have created something special.
E.ON recognises there is no single solution to a country’s energy problems, and this multi-layered approach is visible in Hyllie. The district’s heating and cooling is completely powered by renewable and recycled (sometimes known as “recovered”) energy, which comes from a number of sources: solar; wind; biogas, from food waste or sewage; incinerated refuse; and the capture of excess heat from industrial processes. However, powering a city on renewable and recycled energy comes with its own set of challenges.
“We can’t really [control] when the wind’s blowing or when the sun is shining, or when the heating or cooling demand is high,” says Berne. “And then it becomes much more relevant to ask, how can we store energy, and also how can we find flexibility within the infrastructure that we are developing to cope with these variations?”
This is where the idea started to form of a digital brain called ectocloud that optimises the different thermal energy flows, and enables an integrated energy infrastructure that can harness, store and redistribute energy throughout the local networks. This also fostered the development of E.ON’s innovative heating and cooling system, ectogrid.
From data centres and transport hubs to supermarkets, many cities already produce energy in the form of excess heat. One of the most exciting aspects of the E.ON ectogrid, winner of an energy efficiency award at the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai, is that it uses heat pumps to harness this energy which usually goes untapped, and is therefore wasted. In Hyllie and Malmö, ectocloud ensures that the best available energy is redirected to buildings across the smart district heating grid when and where needed, providing them with their heating.
One of the great advantages with the Hyllie development is the fact that E.ON was able to be on board from the ground up, building, testing and evaluating as sustainable systems were put into the very heart of the district. Although that won’t be possible in every case, E.ON is ready to take the lessons learned and implement these systems elsewhere. Excitingly, many features of such smart and integrated energy infrastructure are now being scaled throughout the rest of Malmö, with the whole city aiming to be run on 100% renewable and recycled energy by 2030. And in the UK, E.ON is currently installing the nation’s first ectogrid in Silvertown, a major redevelopment project on east London’s Royal Docks.
As for why Hyllie emerged as a testbed for sustainable innovation, Berne has some thoughts. “From a Scandinavian or a Swedish perspective, I think sustainability has been quite high up on our agenda, and Malmö is a frontrunner in sustainable urban development, recognising the value of driving transition through collaborative testbeds providing proof of concept in real-life environments,” he says.
“Perhaps that is because we have a lot of nature nearby, so we see the value of it. In this modern stressful life, it’s a place where the mind can get a bit of peace.” With the help of E.ON, this sustainable outlook could soon be one of Sweden’s most famous exports.
Find out more about E.ON’s pioneering work in the UK to create sustainable cities and communities
