Germany’s RWE has finished connecting one of Europe’s largest onshore wind turbines to the grid. The Swedish company Nysäter will supply up to 1.7 TWh of electricity annually.
Wind energy development continues in Sweden, while it slows down in Norway. Processing of wind energy orders in Norway was suspended in 2019, and investments in new energy production fell last year.
Germany’s RWE has now connected one of Europe’s largest ground-based wind turbines, Nysäter, to the Swedish electricity grid. It is located near Härnöstrand, about 400 kilometers north of Stockholm.
The plant consists of two parts and has a total of 114 turbines with a capacity of 475 megawatts. According to the company, it will be able to produce about 1.7 TWh of electricity annually.
Sweden currently has one consumption In line with Norway’s consumption of 140 TWh annually, it has plans to develop plenty of onshore and offshore winds to meet its climate goals. Among other things, there is a need for electrification of the iron and steel industry in Sweden, which requires huge amounts of electricity.
The Swedish Wind Energy Corporation estimates that annual wind energy production in Sweden will rise to around 49 TWh in 2024, from about 29 TWh now. Sweden’s total energy production is in operation About 160 TWh year.
The construction of the Nesatyr plant began in 2018, and the first power to the grid was delivered in 2020. Now all the turbines are connected to the Swedish power grid. The facility will officially open on Thursday.
“The company supports the Swedish government in its efforts to achieve ambitious climate goals. RWE operates one offshore wind farm and 10 onshore wind farms in Sweden,” writes RWE in one message.
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will hire more
RWE is the operator and owns 20 percent of the project, while 80 percent is owned by Energy Infrastructure Partners (formerly Credit Suisse Energy Infrastructure Partners).
RWE plans to increase investment in the Swedish renewable energy sector in the future.
“There are currently several projects in the pipeline, so we’re looking for people,” says Katia Funchel, CEO of onshore wind and solar for Europe and Australia at RWE Renewables.
We want to strengthen our existing team of 100 people with additional colleagues, she says.
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More energy can reduce prices
Electricity consumption in the Nordic region is expected to rise from about 400 TWh last year to 530 TWh in 2030, and then to 655 TWh in 2040, according to a report by Statnett and other companies.
Norway expects a sharp increase in electricity consumption after the 2020s, while energy production is not expected to increase as much. Statnett recently said the power surplus could drop to just three TWh in a typical year already in 2026.
Increasing wind energy production may lower electricity prices in Sweden, according to a source Report Sweco recently built for the Swedish wind energy company. For every new TWh of wind energy production installed, the annual average price of electricity in southern Sweden (SE3 and SE4) could be reduced by 0.4 Swedish øre per kilowatt-hour, Sweco estimates.
However, the magnitude of this price effect also depends on other factors, such as the prices of fossil energy in Europe, the prices of CO2 quotas and the transmission possibilities of the Swedish electricity grid.
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