Permitting Milestones for Finnish Offshore Wind Project’s Demo Phase

Planning & Permitting

December 21, 2023, by Adnan Memija

The demonstration phase of the Tahkoluoto offshore wind farm extension project, being developed by Suomen Hyötytuuli in Finland, has been granted water and building permits.

Tahkoluoto extension offshore wind farm will be located 4-22 kilometres off the coast of Pori, in Western Finland. The project is the world’s first offshore wind farm in frozen sea conditions.

In the demonstration project phase, two wind turbines will be built to pilot new, large-scale offshore wind turbines and a foundation concept for deep waters in frozen sea conditions.

“This is the first time that permits have been granted for wind turbines of this scale in Finland. It was important for us to ensure that the detailed understanding of the marine life that we gathered during the environmental impact assessment and land use planning, have been taken into account in the permitting”, said Juho Lappalainen, Project Development Manager for Tahkoluoto Offshore Extension project.

”Naturally, we also have to monitor the environmental impacts comprehensively during the construction phase and the initial stages of production.”

The findings of the demonstration project will be applied to the Tahkoluoto extension project, which consists of 40 wind turbines of over 15 MW. The construction phase is planned for 2027-2029. The wind farm’s total capacity will be between 600 MW and 800 MW.

The annual production of the expansion project is estimated to reach 2,000 gigawatt-hours.

In October, Suomen Hyötytuuli carried out seabed test excavations at a depth of 43 metres, deeper than ever before in Finland, said the developer. The test excavations were executed in cooperation between Dutch-Finnish Boskalis-Terramare and the Finnish Hyötytuuli.

”With the building and water permits in force, the investment decision is close at hand. Next, we will verify the pricing and availability of the critical components of the project, after which we are ready to proceed to the implementation phase”, said Manu Grönlund, Project Director of the Tahkoluoto Offshore Extension demonstration project.