Ørsted Pauses Development of 1.5 GW Swedish Offshore Wind Farm

December 5, 2024, by Adnan Memija

Following the Swedish government’s rejection of 13 offshore wind farm proposals last month, including Ørsted’s Skåne Offshore Wind Park, the Danish developer revealed it will pause the development of this specific project.

Earlier in 2024, several areas offshore Sweden, where Ørsted is planning to build wind farms, were designated as energy areas by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. These include Kattegat, Gävle Öst, Baltic Central, and Skåne.

In November, the Swedish government rejected 13 applications to build offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea due to defense concerns while approving one project on the west coast, namely Poseidon, being developed by Vattenfall in partnership with Zephyr.

One of those rejected applications was from Ørsted for the development of the 1.5 GW Skåne Offshore Wind Park, located 22 kilometres south of the Skåne coast.

Ørsted says that they “are disappointed by the government’s decision, as it limits the opportunities to develop Sweden’s capacity for offshore wind in the Baltic Sea and risks locking southern Sweden into electricity shortages and power deficits for a long time to come”.

However, the Danish company said it will continue with the development of offshore wind farms in the Kattegat and the Gulf of Bothnia regions.

The Kattegat Offshore Wind Farm is located offshore Halmstad and Falkenberg. The project has a planned capacity of up to 1.5 GW.

The Gävle Öst and Gävle Väst projects are located in Gävle, Älvkarleby, Tierp, and Östhammar. The planned capacity for Gävle Öst is up to 5.5 GW, while Gävle Väst has a planned capacity of 4 GW.