Will Sweden increase its offshore wind energy volumes?

On Friday 23 March WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson participated in the seminar ‘Recent development in offshore wind in Sweden and trends in Europe’ organised by Bird & Bird in Stockholm.

The event explored the options outlined in a recently published study by the Swedish Energy Agency. The study looks at the feasibility of boosting further deployment in Swedish waters by relieving offshore wind farms developers of grid-connection costs. Either the Swedish government or the national Transmission System Operator, Svenska Kraftnät, would take on these costs.

Dickson presented the status and latest trends of offshore wind energy in Europe and in the Baltic Sea region. Today Sweden has 6.5 GW cumulative wind capacity installed – 202 MW of which is offshore. A total of 86 offshore wind turbines with an average size of 2.5 MW each are connected to the grid in 3 different wind farms.

Here, Dickson reminded attendees that Europe needs to reach the optimal target of 6 GW of offshore wind capacity installed per year if it wants to continue current cost reduction trends, develop a solid supply chain and remain at the forefront in the sector globally. But in its 2030 central scenario, WindEurope foresees only 300 MW of offshore wind installed in Swedish waters by 2030. This is because Sweden has not provided any visibility over the offshore wind power volumes to be deployed after 2020 – visibility that is crucial for the wind industry to plan new projects and investments accordingly.

Find out more about the scenarios for wind energy in Europe by reading WindEurope’s report Wind energy in Europe, Scenarios for 2030