Sweden rejects applications for thirteen offshore wind farms

Sweden has rejected plans to build 13 offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea, citing security concerns.

The farms were intended to be located off the Åland Islands in the north along the entire east coast down to Öresund. The government believes that building the projects in question in the Baltic Sea area would have unacceptable consequences for Sweden’s defence.

Swedish Defence Minister Pål Jonson said at a press conference that the wind farms would make it harder to detect and shoot down missiles using Sweden’s Patriot batteries in case of a conflict.

Only one more wind farm has been approved to be built along the Scandinavian country’s east coast. The government has already given the go-ahead for two offshore wind farms – Kattegat South and Galene on the west coast.

Now the Poseidon wind farm off Stenungsund on the west coast has also been given the go-ahead. It involves a maximum of 81 wind turbines that can contribute 5.5 terawatt hours per year, according to Romina Pourmokhtari, Sweden’s Minister for Climate and the Environment.

Poseidon is the third offshore wind project to get the green light since 2022. A further 10 applications are still waiting for a government decision.

The decision to reject the applications for wind farms has raised questions over how Sweden can meet its plans to double annual electricity production over the next two decades.

To achieve this, the Swedish government hopes to build out nuclear power. It aims to have an additional 2500 megawatts of nuclear power by 2035 and 10 new reactors a decade later, but critics say demand is expected to rise faster than new reactors can be built.