640 MW Offshore Wind Farm in Sweden Receives Natura 2000 Permit

Vattenfall has been granted a Natura 2000 permit for the Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm in Sweden by the Administrative Board of Skåne County, off whose coast the developer aims to build the 640 MW project.

Parts of the Kriegers Flak site in the Baltic Sea have been classified as a Natura 2000 area and, as part of the process to get this approval, Vattenfall has conducted environmental studies to find possible alternatives and take appropriate protection measures to facilitate coexistence between wind power and environmental considerations.

The works on the offshore wind farm, located some 30 kilometres south of Trelleborg, will be placed at a sufficient distance from sensitive habitats to minimise the impact, the developer said.

The Skåne County wants to increase renewable electricity production by 3.0 TWh by 2030. With a production of between 2.3 TWh and 2.8 TWh annually, corresponding to approximately 20 per cent of Skåne’s electricity use, the Swedish Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm plays an important role in the county’s energy and climate change goals, according to Vattenfall.

In 2017, Vattenfall decided to use fewer but bigger turbines for the project and submitted an amendment application to the Swedish government the following year. The application also included a request to extend the construction deadline until 2027, from the initially set October 2018.

Last year, the government announced that the application was complete and the time for comments had closed. The government is yet to grant the project changes.

The 640 MW offshore wind farm is planned to comprise 40–50 wind turbines with a maximum height of 280 metres.

The developer expects to obtain the remaining permits in the next few years, with project procurement anticipated to take place in 2023–2024 and installation in 2025–2027, depending on the progress of the permits.

The Kriegers Flak area in the Baltic Sea consists of three parts dedicated to wind power development in Germany, Sweden and Denmark. On the Danish side, Vattenfall is already building a wind farm and half of the wind turbines have been installed so far. On the German side, a wind farm has been up and running in the area since 2015. The Kriegers Flak project between the two countries includes a Combined Grid Solution (CGS) that connects Danish Kriegers Flak and German Baltic 2 offshore wind farms.