The future drives electric – the question is when. We are however taking further steps towards the electrification of vehicles. Last week I participated in the E-Mobility day in Gothenburg as we are getting closer to the launch of the new “Vattenfall car”. I learned a lot about the joint venture with Volvo and the benefits of this close cooperation, and we were also able to test drive the new V60 PHEV!

I have previous working experience from the German E-mobility program in Berlin where Vattenfall and BMW jointly were running a project called Mini E, which used fifty electric BMW Mini Coopers, hence the name of the proj­ect.

Although the technical development is going well, the big challenge remains – the commercialisation of the cars and its charging infrastructure.

It’s important to increas­e public acceptance for electric vehicles and to find the right market incentives, above sustainable, it needs to be simple, fun and flexible to a reasonably price.

However, you don’t need a drastic change in order to live in a more sustainable manner. Yesterday I was participating at DI Gasell, which is an event formed by the Swedish Newspaper DI, aiming to support entrepreneurial companies. Vattenfall is one of the sponsors and was presenting the One Tonne Life project. The aim of the project is to demonstrate how to reduce your CO2 footprint, from 7 tonne/person/year to 1 tonne/person/ year – and the solution is very much about having the right preconditions and attitude. During six month a normal Swedish family has lived in a climate-smart house featuring solar cells on the roof, driving an electric car and trying to live in a more sustainable way – and after six month they succeeded achieving the one tonne target!

Tomorrow I’m heading towards Amsterdam for a visit of a SOLAR car! I’ll keep you posted!

I have during the last weeks been travelling around in Europe learning about Vattenfalls business in Amsterdam, Brussels and Sweden.

My trainee colleagues and I started up in Amsterdam attending a seminar about personal development and strategic leadership. The first step is naturally to understand yourself, your values and behaviour in order to be able to understand and lead others. In preparation we had been asked to complete a questionnaire about how we would react in various situations. A similar form was distributed to our work colleagues, family members and close friends – the answers resulted in a personal report, describing our characteristics and capabilities. I found the material interesting and useful. Naturally, it’s important to be aware of how other people see you and whether it’s in line with your own opinion and expectations.

We had also time to bike and enjoy a charming Amsterdam! I have previous working experiences in Amsterdam, which is one of my favourite cities.  It’s artistic, beautiful and fun and the Dutch are easy to get along with.

After gaining new insights about the Benelux operations, the tour continued to Brussels and a seminar about “Energy is politics”.  The political agenda is more or less determining the market conditions for the energy business. We visited the European Parliament, Commission and discussed energy politics with our colleagues at Vattenfall European Affairs.

I am personally interested in the development of Smart Grids, which is key to the future efficient and low-carbon electricity market and a necessary precondition to achieve the European energy targets. I got an introduction to a number of European initiatives driving research, development and demonstration programs in order to accelerate and coordinate the deployment of Smart Grids in Europe. Very interesting and I gained valuable insights.

The final day of the journey was all about renewable energy and took place on the west cost of Sweden. We learned much about the technology behind ocean wave energy and visited a factory of one of the pioneers in this industry. Wave power has potential, but is highly dependent on an EU directive.

Wind power on the other hand is already a huge industry. Sweden has around 1700 windmills, and we had the opportunity to climb one of them!

Please let me know if you have any questions about the trainee program or the energy business.

Hello and welcome to a source of renewable inspiration! My name is Louise Hammarberg and I participate in the Vattenfall international trainee program. The aim of my blog is to give an insight of the trainee program, share my experiences as well as outline the possibilities within the smart energy system of the future.

I was born and raised in Stockholm and travelled to Australia after graduating from high school. I studied at a collage in Sydney, played tennis and other outdoor sports.  After a joyful time on the surfboard I moved to Lund for a half decade of university studies. I studied Business Administration and Management at the Lund School of Economics and Management. I ended up with a Bachelor in Strategic Management and a Master degree in Technology Management, which is a cooperation between the School of Economics and the School of Engineering. The program reconnects the subjects of technology, economy and management with a focus on project leading.

I usually describe myself to be an economist who understands the technical language, aiming to work with innovation, sustainability and communication. I found the possibility to interconnect these subjects within the energy business. The industry is facing huge challenges on its way towards a low carbon future, seeking for new system solutions, new collaboration partners and a harmonisation of regulation systems. The energy business is heading towards a paradigm shift in terms of more renewables, electric vehicles and an active demand side, all enabled by smarter grids.

I have during my first six month been working with connection services of renewables, Emobility and Smart Grids.

I spent the first month of the program in Trollhättan working with an investment program for wind power connections at Distribution Nordic. I gained a good knowledge of the economics in the distribution business and the fact that the grid is the bottleneck in the new energy system.

Thereafter, I joined the business development team of green Emobility at Vattenfall Europe Innovation in Berlin. The driver for Emobility on the German market is the increasing need for storage capacity due to the increasing demand of renewables. The battery of an electric vehicle is seen as a storage room for wind power.

My next project was within grid innovation in Berlin/Hamburg where I was involved in Demand Side Management. My focus was to investigate how to actively steer the energy consumption of the consumers by price signals and differentiated tariffs.

Furthermore, I have been participating in seminar weeks in Stockholm, Berlin and Warsaw together with my dear trainee colleagues. We are in total 15 trainees from Sweden, Germany, Holland, Poland, Finland and the UK. The seminar weeks provides us with introductions to the various operations within Vattenfall, knowledge about the value chain as well as valuable training in management, team building and personal development.

As a trainee I have got a great chance to explore and get to know various areas of the company, meet lots of skilful colleagues and to share findings throughout the organisation. It has also been possible to shape my own content of my various assignments.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding any of this. I hope to keep you updated with new findings and experiences!