Comment on the Swedish government’s announcement about offshore wind power
Today, the Swedish government announced the rejection of 13 applications for offshore wind power projects with reference to defense interests. For Eolus, the Arkona and Skidbladner projects are affected, both of which are rejected. The applications concerning the Västvind and Najaderna projects are still being processed by the Government Office.
– Today’s announcement is surprising and very unfortunate for both climate change and Sweden’s development and competitiveness. Offshore wind power has the potential to contribute large amounts of electricity that Swedish companies need for their transition. This means that we run the risk of Sweden losing out on industrial investments and thus job opportunities, says Per Witalisson, CEO of Eolus.
– We see that other NATO countries are developing offshore wind power and are convinced that it would have been possible to realize some of the projects that have now been rejected through cooperation between the Swedish Armed Forces and wind power operators. We see, for example, that permits conditional on collaboration with the defense, for example via security-classified consultants, in combination with compensatory measures in the wind farms is a possible path.
– For Eolus, we will continue to focus on, among other projects, Västvind outside Gothenburg and Najaderna outside Gävle/Tierp, where the government has communicated that it will invest extra resources in increasing the pace of the processing of permit applications.
At the end of the second quarter, Eolus had 11,000 MW of offshore wind power in its portfolio. Of this, Arkona accounted for 1,200 MW and Skidbladner for 1,000 MW. Västvind and Najaderna comprise 1,000 MW each. Eolus’s project portfolio includes a total of 28,400 MW of wind power, solar power and battery storage.
More information about our projects is available on our website www.eolus.com
