7 February 2022

RWE plans huge wind farm off the coast of Sweden

Germany's largest electricity producer, RWE, has established itself in Sweden with a view to investing tens of billions of kronor in both wind power and hydrogen. The largest project is Södra Midsjöbanken, a huge offshore wind farm 100 km off Sweden's southeast coast, which RWE hopes the government will give the go-ahead for as soon as possible. "We are one of the largest players in the world in renewable electricity production and have just announced a record-breaking investment program of over SEK 500 billion by 2030. And Sweden is one of the countries where we want to invest heavily," says Roland Flaig, CEO of RWE Renewables AB , which is a subsidiary within the RWE Group, and responsible for the Swedish operations. Flaig goes on to say Sweden is one of the most attractive countries with fantastic conditions for new green energy, mainly in wind power and in the long run also hydrogen. RWE took over after a structural deal with Eon in 2019 and has a large portfolio of possible projects that together correspond to about a fifth of today's total electricity consumption in Sweden, mainly around wind power.  

Today's industry

Agder Energi enters into partnership with Green Investment Group.

Green Investment Group (GIG) is one of the world's largest investors and developers of green infrastructure. With GIG, Agder Energi will now participate in the competition to develop offshore wind on Utsira Nord. Utsira Nord (1.5 GW) is one of two areas that the Norwegian authorities have opened up for the development of offshore wind, with wind conditions that are particularly suitable for floating offshore wind. Through the partnership, Agder Energi and Green Investment Group aim to contribute to Norway reaching its net zero target for 2050, as well as the development of a national offshore wind industry that stimulates both innovation and regional and national jobs. Agder Energi is Norway's fourth largest producer of renewable hydropower, and produces 8.7 TWh from its 49 power stations.

Byavisa

Vattenfall tests black wind turbine blade to avoid bird deaths

According to a Norwegian study, financed by Vattenfall, the number of bird collisions is reduced by 70% if a single wing on the wind turbines is painted black. Now Vattenfall will investigate whether Dutch birds behave in the same way. The Norwegian study was conducted on the island of Smøla near Kristiansund. This new study will be carried out by Vattenfall on seven wind turbines in a wind farm in Eemshaven, the Netherlands. Jesper Kyed Larsen, an environmental expert at Vattenfall, says according to a press release that the fewer collisions are due to the way birds perceive the rotating wind turbine blades. “When a bird gets close to the rotating turbine blades, the three individual blades can flow together in a blurry image, so the birds may no longer perceive the blades as an object to avoid. A black wing breaks the pattern, so the wings are less likely to merge into a single image," he said. In 2020, Vattenfall carried out a comprehensive research project on birds' behaviour around the wind turbines at Klim Wind Farm in North Jutland. "The study showed that the birds in the experiment were better at avoiding colliding with the wind turbines than expected. About 99 percent of the cranes and short-billed geese flying around the area could avoid the turbine wings," says Larsen.

Wind Denmark

Ecoclime’s ‘Evertherm’ system fitted by Stockhomshem Student housing

Ecoclime’s ‘Evertherm SEW’ has, after several years of analysis, been shown to offer highest performance in winter months in comparison with alternatives such as geothermal heat, solar cells and wind power. As a result Ecoclime is now putting into operation two Evertherm SEW systems for one of Sweden's largest property owners Stockholmshem. The systems will recycle free energy more than 10 times from the sewers in three newly produced student properties.

Today's industry

---