ÄFAB is a company listed among U.S. Ambassador to Sweden Michael Wood’s “One Big Thing” initiative as one of the 30 most important environmental engineering companies in Sweden. Because Ambassador Wood clearly sees the value for both the U.S. and Sweden, he has worked hard to provide all possible assistance to establish formal cooperation and exchange between researchers, innovators, educators, business people, and venture capitalists. The International Bioenergy Days event is an important piece of this initiative.

This should not be surprising, when it comes to both the production and use of bio-energy, Sweden in general and West Sweden in particular lead Europe and the world and, for that reason, is the center of Sweden’s ”Green Energy Belt”. At least 60% of Sweden’s companies within combustion technology are located there and the region is home to many of Sweden’s leading agricultural companies, among the best universities and research institutes as well as the heart of Sweden’s automobile industry. Volvo and Saab, on a world-wide level, are recognized leaders in the development of cars that use bio fuels. In the middle of all of this, “best practices” abound, making it possible to succeed in making both profitable investments and developing successful businesses using bio-energy as a raw material.

In the region of West Sweden, in particular, there are a large number of examples of every kind of bio-energy installation that can be found to exist, from the simplest and smallest forms, to large-scale productions at power, heating, and cooling plants. This situation is unique in the world and, by involving actors from this region in the conference, those from across the world are offered a way of focusing on actual, existing ”success stories” from Sweden that are truly unique. In this way, the International Bioenergy Days event can easily be said to rank quite well among the other “big” bio-energy conferences in Wels, Frankfurt, Milan and Stuttgart.

Because Sweden is a world leader in bio-energy, ÄFAB and the International Bioenergy Days event are well connected and well-known in leading bio-energy countries throughout Europe and the world. One example only; each year the largest European pellet conference takes place in Wels, Austria, during the first week of March. Since 2004, Christian Rakos of proPELLETS Austria, has arranged an International workshop where each European country has the opportunity to report on activities and advances it has made in pellet producing and pellet burning technology over the previous year. At this conference and trade fair, ÄFAB, together with PiR (National Association for the Swedish Pellet Industry), reports annually on the latest developments coming out of Sweden. 

Thanks to the success of the past International Bioenergy Days events, ÄFAB was asked on numerous occasions and from various directions to establish a recurring bio-energy conference that could alternate each year between the United States and Sweden, each time in a different city.

Among those actors and partners, both inside and outside Sweden, who saw the need for this conference and who expressed long-term support have been U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, Mr. Michael M. Wood, the Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce (SACC), representatives for PFI (Pellet Fuel Institute), and the WPAC (Wood Pellet Association of Canada), among many others. They have worked closely with ÄFAB to establish and cooperate in making the International Bioenergy Days a truly international, highly successful yearly arrangement.

Others involved in putting together the present arrangement for the fall of 2008 include Bengt-Erik Löfgren of ÄFAB; Torbjörn Rundqvist of Adserenta AB; Sven Olof Bernhoff of Skånefrö AB; Prof.Thomas Adams, Georgia University; Bob Ryan Sunrise Agrafuels; Dale Wahlstrom of The BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota; Joe Duda of the Colorado State Forest Service; Rob Davis of PFI; T. Michael Davis of the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce – Minnesota; the Minnesota Department of Commerce; the University of Minnesota; Minnesota State University at Mankato; and many others.