Swedish offshore wind farm Taggen bows out. The project has been in development for more than a decade and moreover secured a construction permit back in 2012. But after the Swedish Armed Forces rejected the project, developers Vattenfall and Wallenstam must now shelve the idea, Taggen Vindpark announces.

"It is naturally regrettable that we are now forced to cancel a major renewable energy project that we have been developing with Wallenstam for more than ten years. Now we will focus on bringing our experience from Taggen along into the next offshore wind project," says Taggen Chair Mattias Sjöberg.

Nothing has happened with the project since 2012, which is mainly due to the large power price drop following the financial crisis, which rendered offshore wind quite crippled in Sweden. Since then, the country has lacked the framework conditions for things like grid connection. Meanwhile, Taggen has also had to consider technological developments.

The 83 wind turbines that were approved must be no taller than 170 meters, which would make most of the onshore turbines currently being erected in Sweden tower above them. That's why the developers had applied for a change to the project, making it instead consist of up to 40 turbines of 220 meters. However, the military was having none of it.

"When the new permit application was sent to a hearing, the Armed Forces answered no, not just to the application, but to the project in its entirety," states the press release, which also notes a reference to the Ravlunda training area about 25 kilometers from the coast, 14 kilometers off which the wind turbines were planned to be established.

Moreover, it isn't the first time that the Swedish Armed Forces has thrown a grenade into the planning process of an offshore wind project. In late 2016, the Blekinge Offshore project, which was to comprise 500-700 turbines with a total capacity of 2.5 GW, was rejected with reference to Sweden's heightened threat level regarding Russia, where the offshore wind project could have had "serious consequences", according to the military.

English Edit: Jonas Sahl Jørgensen

Threat from Russia prompts Sweden to cancel 2.5 GW offshore wind farm