Lack of Connection Plan Shelves Sweden’s Most Mature Offshore Wind Project

Sweden’s Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm, which had proceeded to become one of the most mature plans for the emerging sector, is being shelved developer Vattenfall reported today. The company which is owned by the Swedish state cited the “unviable investment prerequisites in Sweden” for the industry saying it would defer until further notice the wind farm which was nearing construction.

Vattenfall is reiterating that it has repeatedly said the project, as is Sweden’s industry, needs a reasonable connection point to the national grid offshore. Speaking with Reuters, the company’s Senior Vice President, Head of Business Area Wind, Helene Bistrom said if Vattenfall had to build the grid connection it would increase the cost of the project by approximately a quarter. Two years ago, in May 2022, when Sweden granted a construction permit for Kriegers Flak, Vattenfall said the project would be contingent on an agreement with Svenska kraftnät, the TSO, on how to connect to the grid on land.

“The investment prerequisites for offshore wind in Sweden are currently not viable and Vattenfall has therefore decided to pause all further development of the project. The wind farm was planned for production start in 2028, which is no longer possible,” the company said in its announcement.

Kriegers Flak was scheduled to reach a final investment decision by 2025 and immediately begin construction. It is on the Swedish side of the Kriegers Flag reef, an area approximately 20 miles south of Trelleborg, Sweden, and home to other wind farms. Vattenfall operates a 605 MW wind farm that went into service in the Danish area in 2021 as Scandinavia’s largest offshore wind farm and on the German side, there is a 288 MW wind farm that has been operational since 2015.

Vattenfall received approval from Sweden in May 2022 for its plan to build a 640 MW wind farm consisting of between 35 to 50 turbines. The company has obtained several permits for the project and in 2023 received the final approval to begin cabling. That permit requires the work to be completed within 10 years.

The company said if the investment prerequisites improve and the permits are still valid, the project could resume. The company has plans to develop projects that could provide Sweden with 18 TWh of electricity by 2035, but it notes the issues related to the cost and installation of the interconnect remain a hurdle to the industry. Kriegers Flak was scheduled to provide 2.7 TWh of electricity per year.

Today, Vattenfall reports it operates more than 1,300 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of approximately 6.1 GW across five countries in Europe. Vattenfall in 2023 stopped plans for offshore wind farms in the UK citing increasing costs and later sold the portfolio to RWE.