Sweden plans to break oil habit...

...and fuel its cars with ethanol. The rising cost of oil imports has made Sweden set itself the goal of energy independence by 2020. The country has loads of trees, which are a renewable resource, so it makes sense to use woodchips which are converted into bioethanol. Entrepreneur Per Carstedt is leading the way in the transition process. The Swedes have built a large number of small power plants which can run on wood and will make it easier to change over. Germany, by comparison, has mostly large coal-fired plants. Volvo and Saab are also developing cars that will run on ethanol. At present most ethanol is produced from sugar in Brazil but the Swedes think they can over time cover home demand with wood and other organic matter.