STOCKHOLM: Sweden’s government said on Monday (Nov 4) it was blocking the construction of 13 offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea, after the country’s military said they could negatively impact defence capabilities.
Climate Minister Romina Pourmokhtari told a press conference that construction permits for the planned wind farms were denied because they “would have an unacceptable impact on defence interests”.
All 13 projects were planned in areas off Sweden’s Baltic Sea coast.
The decision follows a study by the Swedish Armed Forces, which was published by public broadcaster SVT last week, which showed that the projects could significantly disrupt sensors used by the military.
The towers and rotating blades of the wind turbines emit radar echoes and generate other forms of interference.
“In this serious security situation that Sweden is now in, the interests of defence need to carry extra weight,” Defence Minister Pal Jonson told reporters.
Jonson said offshore wind farms could disrupt military radars and delay the detection of incoming cruise missiles, cutting the warning time from two minutes to 60 seconds.
The minister added that the relative closeness of the “highly militarised” Russian exclave of Kaliningrad had been “central in the assessment”.
Tensions in the region have risen following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
NATO recently opened a new naval base in the Germany city of Rostock to coordinate the forces of the military alliance’s members in the area.
At the same time, energy needs, particularly from renewable sources, are high on the agenda.
According to a government memo seen by AFP, electricity demand in Sweden could more than double by 2045.
