Finnish government green lights two large-scale offshore wind farms

Renewables

Finland – The development of two massive offshore wind farms is permitted by the Finnish government, which has given permission to lease its seabed. Metsähallitus, the manager of the state-owned forests and seabed, was given permission to lease these areas.

Finland has built a significant amount of onshore wind in the last ten years and aims to be completely carbon neutral by 2035. In Finland, wind power now accounts for 10% of all electricity, up from less than 1% a decade ago. Finland should be able to get at least 27% of its electricity from wind by 2025. By the end of the year, the nation will have 5 GW of capacity, the majority of it onshore.

In Finnish waters, there is only one 42 MW nearshore wind farm of this size, the Tahkoluoto wind farm, which was completed in 2017. The Finnish government now plans to add up to 45 turbines with a capacity of 11 to 20 MW each to this wind farm. This could increase Tahkoluoto’s capacity to 900 MW in total.

The other area, Korsnäs, is further north in the Bay of Bothnia and is being pre-developed by Metsähallitus itself. A 1.3 GW wind farm was originally envisioned for the location in the plans. However, the government now has more ambitious plans for this area and wants it to be able to produce up to 3 GW of power.

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