The County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland has completed its review of the application for the 2.5 GW Mareld floating offshore wind farm and recommended that the Swedish government approve the proposal after the developer agreed to the Board’s request to reduce the size of the wind farm area.
The project, developed by Freja Offshore, a 50-50 joint venture between Aker Horizons-owned Mainstream Renewable Power and Swedish company Hexicon, is proposed to be built about 40 kilometres west of Lysekil and is expected to deliver 12 TWh of electricity annually.
Earlier this year, the joint venture also entered into a collaboration with the Norwegian company Subfarm to enable setting up fish farms inside the Mareld floating offshore wind farm.
Freja Offshore submitted the planning application under the Swedish Economic Zone Act (SEZ) last year.
The government had tasked the County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland with preparing the application, work which the County Administrative Board has now completed and returned with the recommendation that the wind farm should be approved, subject to certain adaptations.
Namely, during the preparation process, the Board recommended Freja adjust the wind farm area size to ensure a sustainable co-existence with other important ocean users, such as commercial fishing and shipping.
The developer has agreed to modify the project and is now waiting for the government’s final decision on the application.
Carl Dandanell , CEO Freja Offshore, said: “The Mareld project has adjusted the wind farm to be able to coexist with other important societal interests and we are ready to continue to adapt to ensure that the whole is as good as possible. The entire team now look forward to the Government issuing their final decision so the project can move forward without delay.”
Freja Offshore has two more offshore wind projects in Sweden for which it submitted permit applications. One is the 2.5 GW Dyning floating offshore wind farm on Sweden’s east coast and the other is the 2 GW Cirrus fixed-bottom offshore wind farm in southern Sweden.
The news about the County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland’s go-ahead for Freja’s 2.5 GW Mareld floating wind farm comes shortly after the 5.5 GW Aurora offshore wind farm , a project developed by OX2 and Ingka Investments, received approval from the County Administrative Board of Gotland.