Driving on wood: the Swedish transition to wood gas during World War Two

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is about the rapid transition to gasifiers in Sweden during World War Two, which made it possible to fuel cars with domestic wood instead of petrol, the imports of which seized during the war. The transition had been prepared in the interwar period and was executed very effectively in the beginning of the war. However, when the war was over and petrol became available again most gasifiers were quickly dismantled. In the concluding discussion, the concepts of head wind and tail wind transitions are introduced to analyze why gasifiers were introduced so rapidly in the beginning of the war, and why they were dismantled just as quickly after the war. It is argued, that the gasifiers were a clear example of a head wind transition, and the gasifier transition is briefly contrasted with two other energy transitions in Sweden that were tail wind transitions: the development of hydropower and of nuclear power.