Sweden blocks 13 offshore wind farms: ‘Unacceptable consequences for defence’

The Swedish government has rejected applications for 13 offshore wind farms in large parts of the southern and central Baltic Sea due to concerns from the Swedish Armed Forces that it would make it more difficult to defend the country.

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Only one of the 14 wind farms – Poseidon outside of Stenungsund on the west coast – got the green light. The other 13 parks, stretching from Åland in the north to the Öresund strait in the south, were all rejected due to the impacts they could have on Swedish defence.
“I think most people understand that today’s announcement was a difficult decision,” Energy and Business Minister Ebba Busch told a press conference.

The government’s decision follows an analysis carried out by the Swedish Armed Forces, which concluded that offshore wind farms would make it much harder to defend Sweden in the case of an attack.
“Building these projects in the Baltic Sea would have unacceptable consequences for Sweden’s military defence,” said Defence Minister Pål Jonson, who was at the press conference alongside Busch and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari.
“The only responsible thing to do is to not expand wind power in the Baltic,” Jonson added.
According to the Armed Forces, the wind turbines above the water risk obstructing the view of important security systems, and the parks themselves affect sensors both above and below the surface.

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In other Nato countries, such as Poland, the companies building the wind farms work together with the armed forces by, for example, including radar or sonar systems in wind farms to compensate for disturbances to sensors. 
This, according to Jonson, is not a possible solution for Sweden.
“It’s not possible to compensate for the way the military geography looks right now,” he said, referring to Sweden’s proximity to Kaliningrad and Russia.
Busch did not say whether wind power companies should avoid trying to build parks in the Baltic Sea completely, only that the government was “tidying up an extremely messy system.”
“The wind power companies haven’t known where it’s worth investing in a project,” she said.
The only park which was approved, Poseidon, is expected to produce up to 5.5 terawatt hours of electricity a year. 
There are ten more applications for offshore wind parks on the table, and an inquiry is in process, due to report in December, to propose an entirely new system for increasing the number of offshore wind farms. That will more closely resemble the system used by other countries.

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Only one of the 14 wind farms – Poseidon outside of Stenungsund on the west coast – got the green light. The other 13 parks, stretching from Åland in the north to the Öresund strait in the south, were all rejected due to the impacts they could have on Swedish defence.
“I think most people understand that today’s announcement was a difficult decision,” Energy and Business Minister Ebba Busch told a press conference.
The government’s decision follows an analysis carried out by the Swedish Armed Forces, which concluded that offshore wind farms would make it much harder to defend Sweden in the case of an attack.
“Building these projects in the Baltic Sea would have unacceptable consequences for Sweden’s military defence,” said Defence Minister Pål Jonson, who was at the press conference alongside Busch and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari.
“The only responsible thing to do is to not expand wind power in the Baltic,” Jonson added.
According to the Armed Forces, the wind turbines above the water risk obstructing the view of important security systems, and the parks themselves affect sensors both above and below the surface.
In other Nato countries, such as Poland, the companies building the wind farms work together with the armed forces by, for example, including radar or sonar systems in wind farms to compensate for disturbances to sensors. 
This, according to Jonson, is not a possible solution for Sweden.
“It’s not possible to compensate for the way the military geography looks right now,” he said, referring to Sweden’s proximity to Kaliningrad and Russia.
Busch did not say whether wind power companies should avoid trying to build parks in the Baltic Sea completely, only that the government was “tidying up an extremely messy system.”
“The wind power companies haven’t known where it’s worth investing in a project,” she said.
The only park which was approved, Poseidon, is expected to produce up to 5.5 terawatt hours of electricity a year. 
There are ten more applications for offshore wind parks on the table, and an inquiry is in process, due to report in December, to propose an entirely new system for increasing the number of offshore wind farms. That will more closely resemble the system used by other countries.