One of world's largest offshore wind farms wins key environmental permit
One of world's largest offshore wind farms wins key environmental permit | Windpower Monthly
OX2 and Ingka Investments have secured a Natura 2000 permit for their planned 5.5GW Aurora wind farm in the Swedish Baltic Sea.
The permit means that the nearby Gotland county administrative board agrees that the wind farm can be realised without harming species worthy of protection, OX2 stated.
The board will now propose to the central government that the wind farm can be built.
If the developers secure final approval from the government, they could start construction by 2028 and power production before 2030, they claimed.
The project off the Swedish islands of Gotland and Öland is one of the largest planned offshore wind farms in the world.
OX2 and Ingka Investments – the investment arm of the Ingka Group, the largest Ikea retailer – claimed they could install sensors on the wind farm’s turbines to help the military with surveillance and control in the area.
Emelie Zakrisson, head of offshore wind development in Sweden at OX2, said the wind farm could be used to deliver electricity to Gotland and mainland Sweden, and also to produce green hydrogen.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: wind
Decades of government support for the development of wind energy has resulted in lower costs and a rapidly growing share of electricity generated by wind turbines. Wind in 2019 accounted for 7.3 percent of electrical generation, surpassing for the first time hydropower at 7.0 percent.