The County Administrative Board has recommended that the government grant a permit for part of Eolus’s offshore wind farm Västvind located outside Gothenburg.
The authority said it is handling the section of the project in the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone and cited the need for increased electricity production in western Sweden as a decisive reason for approval.
Eolus added that the Land and Environment Court is processing the part of the project within Swedish territorial waters, with the government to make the final decision on the project.
The County Administrative Board excluded a significant portion of the EEZ project area due to shipping safety distances but indicated a larger area could be approved if regulations change.
Approximately half of the energy used in western Sweden comes from fossil fuels.
“It is very positive that the County Administrative Board clearly points to the need for increased electricity production in Western Sweden as a decisive reason for granting a permit for the wind farm,” said Per Witalisson, chief executive of Eolus.
“If the government wants to safeguard Western Sweden’s development in terms of jobs, competitiveness, and the future of industry, it has every opportunity to grant a permit for Västvind.”
“We now assume that both authorities and policymakers will take this forward to find constructive solutions for coexistence between electricity generation and shipping,” stated Ylva Sörqvist Hultgren, project manager for Västvind at Eolus.
“We believe it is up to the government to set requirements for both the shipping sector and other stakeholders to cooperate in order to enable coexistence.”