Sweden: 2000 new wind turbines planned by 2020

Around 20 percent of Sweden’s current energy production comes from renewable sources, and the country aims to increase the balance to 50 percent by 2020.

Sweden is planning to install 2,000 new wind turbines by 2020. The latter was announced by Energy Minister Maud Olofsson, who specified that considerable investments are also planned for biomass, cogeneration and hydropower plants.

The goal is to develop renewable generation by about 25 TWh, equivalent to about 17% of the Swedish electricity needs, now met for 45% by hydro and for 44% by nuclear, while the remaining 11% of the energy comes from by wind energy and thermal power plants, many fuelled by biomass.

In the last few days, action was taken by the Swedish government, which approved the Markbygden wind project, in the Norrbotten County, west of the city of Piteea, in the country’s far north.

With a planned investment of just over 5 billion euros, the plant will take 12 to 15 years before it is completed, and it will then become the largest European wind farm, with 1,100 wind turbines, capable of producing 10 to 12 TWh of electricity per year.

The wind power plant will cover an area of 450 sq km, although the land actually occupied by turbines and ancillary services will only slightly exceed 15 square km.

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