Sweden’s Buses To Run On Cheap Wine

Commuters in Stockholm soon may be able to drink Spanish wine and ride it to work, too.

Stung by the high price of ethanol for their environment-friendly buses, authorities plan to use cheap Spanish wine as fuel instead, a newspaper said Tuesday.

The city’s transportation chief, Claes Anstrand, told Expressen that surplus Spanish wine will be imported and transformed into fuel for use in the capital’s 82 ethanol-powered buses.

Swedish ethanol is made of waste products from the forest industry, such as branches and sticks. Wine can be put through the same process. The newspaper did not give the price of the ethanol or the wine.

“The price of the ethanol has become incredibly high and it is cheaper for us to make ethanol out of imported wine,” Anstrand was quoted as saying.

“We have ordered another 48 environmental buses, and Spanish grapes will keep them in traffic, at least for the next couple of years,” he said.