Voters in the Swedish locality of Soderhamn have voted to ban the development of offshore wind energy.
The district’s voters were polled in two referenda, taking place during the recent Swedish elections on 11 September.
The first was on whether the municipality should allow wind power to be established on Storgrundet, which is approximately 3 km off the coast of Soderhamn in the Baltic Sea.
The other referendum was on whether Soderhamn should allow wind power to be established within its territorial waters.
In both referenda, over half of the district’s voters voted against building offshore wind farms.
Just over 35% voted in favour of allowing the farms to be built, with around 10% abstaining.
With a population of over 11,000, over 70% of the municipality’s electorate voted in the referenda.
The results potentially jeopardise the Storgrundet Wind Farm project, a proposed 1020MW development for the region, owned by Germany’s WPD Offshore (Now Skyborn Renewables) and being developed by Sweden’s Storgrundet Offshore.
The project is in the permitting phase and is scheduled for commissioning in 2030.
Earlier this year, hydrogen company Lhyfe signed a deal to connect a green hydrogen production facility to the wind farm to consume around 600MW of the wind farm’s output to produce around 240 tonnes of hydrogen per day.
The results of the referenda are a guidance and as such are not legally binding.