Europe's biggest wind farm planned in Sweden

Enlarge

The first onshore wind farm to be built in the southeast of England is pictured in 2008. Plans to build the biggest wind farm in Europe are underway in Sweden after winning approval from a local county administrative board, officials said.

Plans to build the biggest wind farm in Europe are underway in Sweden after winning approval from a local county administrative board on Monday, officials said.

If the Swedish government gives its green light as well, a total of 1,101 wind turbines will be built in northern Sweden at an estimated cost of 55 billion kronor (6.9 billion dollars, 5.1 billion euros), the Norrbotten county administrative board said in a statement.

Its environmental assessment delegation recommended that the government give the Swedish company Markbygden Vind AB a permit for the project. Stockholm is expected to announce its decision within the next 12 months.

"This would be Europe's, if not the world's, biggest wind farm," Caj Noren, a spokesman for the board, told AFP.

Construction could begin in two-and-a-half years and would be completed after about a decade, Noren said.

The wind farm would be located in Markbygden, west of the northern town of Piteaa, in an area measuring about 450 square kilometres (175 square miles).

If and when the wind farm is fully operational, it would produce a total of eight to 12 terawatt hours per year.

The Markbygden project alone could thereby generate enough energy to meet Sweden's 2015 national wind power target of 10 terawatt hours per year. A terawatt is equal to one trillion watts.

The turbines would have a maximum height of 200 metres (650 feet), according to the plans.

Markbygden Vind AB is owned 75 percent by the Swedish group Svevind Holding and 25 percent by German group Enercon, one of the world's biggest wind turbine makers.

No contract has been signed yet for the construction of the turbines.

(c) 2009 AFP

   

• tpb - Apr 06, 2009
  • Rank: not rated yet
  That works out to an average continuous output of a megawatt per windmill, day and night, all year round.
  The biggest available windmills are about 2 megawatts and from what I can determine, generally run at about 20 to 30 percent rated power, long term.
  So either these windmills are something new, or the wind in Sweden is the ideal speed for the windmills and blows 24 hours a day, or the math is off by a factor of two.
  
  • report abuse
  • • Current rank
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5
• Lord_jag - Apr 08, 2009
  • Rank: not rated yet
  Amazing... You decide to produce 1100 of something and you think you might want to make it a little better? wow.
  
  
  
  So... they're spending 6 billion dollars on windmills and you don't think they would have spent a billion or two on R&D? With the windmills you're talking about it would have cost 12 billion. Spend a bit of money on R&D so you can cut the project cost in half? Great!
  
  
  
  Face it. The more you build something the better it SHOULD get.
  • report abuse
  • • Current rank
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5
• Bill_Woods - Apr 16, 2009
  • Rank: not rated yet
  Some of the turbines are something new:
  "Kropp said the project will use the Enercon E82 and E126 turbines, the latter standing 135 meters tall to the hub and classed as the world%u2019s tallest turbine. Rated at 6 megawatts, the E126 turbine has a rotor blade diameter of 126 meters. The first prototypes hit other test sites in Europe last year."
  http://www.isa.or..._Update1&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=75629
  • report abuse
  • • Current rank
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5