Stuck: 35GW red tape backlog threat to Sweden's offshore wind boom

Sixteen offshore wind projects with the potential of a combined 35GW are currently stuck in the government’s slow permitting system, the Swedish wind industry warned.

In the second half of last year alone seven new applications came in, showing a continued high interest by developers. But only three projects of a potentially multi-gigawatt second wave of Swedish offshore wind expansion have been granted a final central government permit – the last one in May of 2023.

The first wave of offshore construction ended in 2013, and only 192MW of wind at sea is currently operating off the Nordic country.

“Another reason why it is so important that [wind] farms get permission is that it is only then that the project owner can connect with investors because it is then that the array has exclusive rights to the area.

“Until then, the project has no exclusivity. That particular part comes very late in the Swedish system.”

Unlike most other countries in Europe, the Swedish central government does not hold seabed lease auctions or tenders for support in offshore wind. It instead allocates acreage at sea according to a kind of first-come-first-served principle, once developers have passed environmental zoning and received a recommendation at a regional level, as well as the Natura 2000 permit.

Before handing out a final permit, the government is also consulting with other marine interest holders, such as fisheries, shipping, or the military, which in the past has blocked offshore wind projects. After a final government permit, developers still have to apply for a grid connection, but that is usually granted.

Swedish state-owned utility Vattenfall last May made the cut in the lengthy approval process and was granted a central government permit for its 1.2GW Kattegat Syd project, while Nordic developer OX2 was approved to construct its 400MW Galene wind farm (together with the investment arm of Ikea owner Ingka). Vattenfall a year earlier had also won a final permit for the 640MW Kriegers Flak array on the Swedish side of the sea border with Denmark and Germany (which both already have up-and-running wind farms in their waters).

But no further project has been approved since by the centre-right government in Stockholm that depends on support by the far-right and wind-sceptic Sweden Democrats for a majority in parliament. The government also has been more vocal in its backing of new nuclear power than that of offshore wind.

On top of that, earlier government pledges to provide the offshore grid connection through transmission system operator Svenska Kraftnät – which were priced in by developers such as Vattenfall – have been scrapped, Kinning noted.

The system in which companies themselves choose which areas at sea to develop has also led to a certain degree of overlapping projects, which increases costs for developers.

Both OX2 and Orsted, for example, have received a positive nod on a regional (county) level for their respective 1.5GW Triton and 1.5GW Skåne projects off southern Sweden. The central government now has to decide which developer can go ahead and build its project.

“There is a rush and the projects that are waiting for permission are not in the idea stage but mature projects that can quickly provide large additions of electricity to Sweden,” Kinning is quoted as saying.

“There is a diversity of projects with different business models with different return requirements, with different technologies, locations and sizes. If you give a permit, you provide the conditions to see which ones can be built, but if you don't get a permit, you can't move forward in that process.”

The offshore wind electricity is urgently needed.

Sweden’s basic industry by 2030 will need an additional 70TWh of electricity, the country's association for forestry, chemistry, mining and steel has estimated.