Rural electrification in Sweden: a comparison

The Swedish history of rural electrification tells of an initially dark landscape where scattered patches of light increased gradually in number and scale across the elongated country.2 It was a diverse process that was neither a matter of central initiatives nor of spread from centre to periphery. Major parts of the history took place between the early and middle parts of the twentieth century, when most rural households were supplied with electricity, although the supplies were often insufficient and unreliable. This period is also the centre of attention in this chapter, which chiefly focuses on the early 1920s to 1950 and consequently omits any discussion of the following decades, when improvements were made to provide sufficient and reliable access to the new energy source.