Sweden followed Finland’s lines: Offshore wind power may not be built south of Åland

Swedish the change of direction in relation to national defense reached yet another milestone this week. On Monday, the Swedish government decided to reject all offshore wind power projects planned south of Åland near the Swedish east coast.

The decision was preceded by a report on the subject published by the Swedish Defense Forces last week.

It’s about 13 large projects that would have produced around 5.5 terawatt hours of electricity upon completion. The amount corresponds to just under a third of Finland’s entire wind power production last year.

The government justified the decision by saying that offshore wind turbines seriously hinder the operation of the study and Sweden’s ability to monitor its sea areas and, for example, the submarines moving in them.

Finland the negotiating official of the Ministry of Defence Anu Sallinen according to the decision did not come as a surprise to Finland, but there was no actual advance information about it either. There is a constant discussion between the countries about the control of sea areas, but the decisions are national.

Sweden’s decision has no effect on Finland’s offshore wind power lines. It is due to the fact that in Finland, the construction of wind power in the Gulf of Finland and the southern part of Åland has not been allowed until now.

“There is a deep understanding of this among all the authorities. It is of the utmost importance that we know all the time what is happening in the sea area of ​​the Gulf of Finland”, says Sallinen.

Wind power operators planning projects in Finland have from time to time referred to the fact that construction in Sweden seems to be successful also on the Baltic Sea side. Now this has changed.

I allow The control of sea areas that works according to is central to how good the “early warning capability” of the Defense Forces is.

“If something were to threaten us in the international sea area off Helsinki, we only have minutes to react before the threat is over Helsinki,” says Sallinen.

According to Sallinen, the wind power operators developing projects in Finland know the realities of Finland well. The position of the Defense Forces is always asked first.

The critical area ends in Åland. North of it, there are no restrictions from a national defense point of view.

“We have given the north of Åland and the Gulf of Bothnia a positive statement for more than 50 projects, which would involve a total of more than 5,500 individual power plants,” says Sallinen.

So many projects will not be realized and some of the projects even overlap.

Correction 7.11. 4:57 p.m.: The article previously incorrectly talked about the west coast of Sweden. It’s actually the east coast.