Wind

Russia's 'threat from east' puts western Sweden on pole for giant floating wind: Freja CEO

Fears over security on nation's eastern coast mean potential military objections, Magnus Hallmann tells Recharge

US Navy amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge at Stockholm harbour during an exercise.
US Navy amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge at Stockholm harbour during an exercise.Foto: Reinaldo Ubilla/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Freja Offshore next year could receive a final central government green light to build its 2.5GW Mareld offshore wind array in the Skagerrak Strait that links the North and the Baltic Seas, CEO Magnus Hallmann told Recharge, pointing also to fewer military sensitivities in the area than off Sweden’s eastern coasts.
The Mainstream Renewable Power and Hexicon tie-up in April submitted a planning application for the floating wind project northwest of Sweden’s second largest city, Gothenburg. Regional county administrations now need to issue a recommendation on it by the end of the first quarter of 2024, after which in an “optimistic scenario” the central government in Stockholm will issue a decision before the summer of that year, he said in an interview.
Stockholm in May granted the first of highly coveted final permits in the expected massive second wave of offshore wind development in the Nordic country to Vattenfall and a consortium of developer OX2 and the investment arm of Ikea owner Ingka Group.

Both were also off Sweden’s West Coast, but a little further to the South than Freja Offshore’s project.

The offshore wind industry has already seen examples of regional counties approving new projects, but the armed forces saying ‘no’, Hallmann said, without specifying which projects he meant. The military had already shot down offshore wind plans in past years.

“You need to look at it from the military perspective, because their mission is obviously to defend Sweden. And as you may know, we are still not an approved NATO member, because Turkey is blocking that down,” said Hallmann, who is also a reserve officer of the Swedish special forces and still has good contacts in the military.

“I would say for the western part of Sweden, it's less sensitive for the military at present.”

The Baltic Sea (to the East of the country) is somewhat more challenging, he added, because “the main threat comes from the East”.

While massively increasing their offshore wind targets to substitute Russian energy imports, countries surrounding the Baltic Sea have been jittery about alleged Russian spy vessels mapping critical marine infrastructure, which could pose a threat to future offshore wind farms and power cables.
The sabotage acts in the Swedish and Danish waters against the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year further heightened security concerns.
Clearing military resistance is the “last hurdle to overcome”, Jesper Kühn Olsen, the development project director for Sweden at Orsted, had told Recharge earlier this year. He had pointed to efforts to find solutions with the Polish military, which shares similar concerns, for offshore wind and the military to coexist.

Installing sensors monitoring both subsea and air in order for the military to have complete overview and oversight of whatever goes on in that area would be one solution, Kühn Olsen had revealed.

But Sweden’s Navy may be looking at holding back some investments in sensor technology for now, “because obviously when we become a NATO member, that will turn the Baltic into a NATO inshore lake basically.”

“One has to appreciate that the military as the Armed Forces has a mission, which is obviously pretty serious,” Hallmann said.

“I think we have to be a little bit patient as developers to actually start the discussion too fast.

“On the other side, I think it would be nice if the Armed Forces at least could sit down and talk a bit more publicly with developers at times, because they're always talking about the secrecy act at the moment.”

Another advantage for Freja Offshore’s Mareld project, next to being located off Sweden’s somewhat less sensitive West Coast, is also that it is planned in deep waters far off the coast next to the Danish and Norwegian sea border.

“It's 40km [offshore]. You barely see it,” he said, countering discussions about visual pollution that have been a problem for offshore wind in Sweden.

To get legislation through parliament, Sweden’s new centre-right minority government needs the votes of the far-right populists Sweden Democrats, whose leader Jimme Akesson repeatedly has lashed out against near-shore and onshore wind.

The Sweden Democrats had been backing an ultimately successful referendum last year against nearshore projects in the Bay of Bothnia off the central Swedish municipality of Söderhamn, endangering parts of projects backed by Iberdrola and Skyborn Renewables.

Projects that are further offshore face “a different discussion”, Hallmann reckoned, but he acknowledged that the populist pressure against wind power “is always a risk we have to monitor”.

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Published 25 May 2023, 08:15Updated 25 May 2023, 08:15
EuropeSwedenFreja OffshoreMainstream Renewable PowerHexicon