Scandinavian Offshore Wind Nixed Due to Russian Threat
IMAGE: Blue circle: the site of the 2 GW Blekinge just below Sweden's island of Hanö; Purple circle: the site of Statoil's 385 MW Arkona in German waters; Red circle: the site of Vattenfall's 600 MW Kriegers Flak.
While the EU has seen a remarkable increase in offshore wind, a Swedish project in the Baltic Sea has been cancelled due to a growing threat from Russia.
What would have been a gigantic two-nuclear-plant-sized (2 GW) offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea; Blekinge Offshore AB was denied its permit in December due to recent heightened tensions in the region.
Blekinge would have been sited 5 kilometers southeast of Sweden's island of Hanö. It had been eight years in the development process, and would have supplied 5 percent of Sweden's electricity; 8,000 GWh of electricity annually.
Initially it was to have been a 700-turbine project, but was eventually scaled down to 350 turbines to accommodate the military needs of the region.
Even scaled back to half size; at 2,000 MW Blekinge Offshore AB would have been a massive step up. Baltic Sea projects have been 50 MW and under, with only five in recent years that are over 100 MW.
Military Threat in the Baltic
The Swedish government decided in December 2016 that this area of sea near Hanö island now must be reserved for military exercises, given a growing threat from Russia, which has stationed nuclear warships off the coast of Kalingrad; just two hundred miles across the Baltic from Hanö.
“Parliament has made it clear that Sweden’s ambitions are to improve its defense,” Sweden’s Environment Minister Carolina Forest said in a statement. “Hanöbukten is one of the strategically most important defense areas Sweden has. The government has considered this issue carefully and concluded that in this case it is not possible to combine the defense business with wind turbines.”
Russia has flown jet fighters through Swedish airspace during training exercises in the Baltic, and Russian submarines have entered Swedish waters, according to the International Business Times.
In October, Finland was forced to scramble its jets twice in one day toward Russian airspace violations.
Finland has been independent from Russia for a century. But a propaganda campaign driven by the Kremlin, designed to create uncertainty about the legitimacy of its independence, is an increasing threat, according to Finnish Director of Communications Markku Juhani Mantila.
Neither Sweden nor Finland are NATO members, but both were considering joining by 2016, according to reports.
Will the Grid Become the New Gas?
This tension arises at a time when Europe is expanding offshore wind in the Baltic and
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