Markbygden Wind Farm
The Markbygden Wind Farm will be a series of interconnected wind farms in the Markbygden area west of Piteå, Norrbotten county in northern Sweden. The project is planned to be built by 2021 and might have a capacity of up to 4,000 Megawatts (MW). Local developer, part-owner and operator Svevind owns 75% of the project development company Markbygden Vind AB and Enercon has a 25% share.
History (until December 2015)
The original plan with the cooperation between Svevind and Enercon was that Enercon shall build a wind tower production plant in the region as well as a local office for service and maintenance. If built out, the 55 billion kronor (€5.1 billion, US$6.9 billion) project will be the largest wind farm in Europe. The wind farm will cover some 450 square kilometers, comprising up to 1 101 wind turbines and is expected to produce up to 12 Terawatt-hours (TWh/year) of electricity per year. The project received the approval of the Norrbotten County authorities in April 2009. On 4 March 2010 the Swedish Government decided to permit Markbygden Vind AB to build and run up to 1 101 wind turbines of a maximum height of 200 meters in the Markbygden area of Piteå Municipality.
As of July 2010, after a call for tender, a specialized environmental impact studies group has started to investigate all environmental and socio-economic issues for the first phase of the grand windfarm in order to get final approval. This phase 1 is called "Markbygden Etapp 1". The final approval was given on 19 December 2011. Markbygden phase 1 involves about 1000 MW nominal power, up to 314 wind turbines, and can reach up to a 3.0 TWh/year production. Earlier plans for realization of Markbygden Phase 1 mentioned to use the Enercon 3.05 MW E-101 turbine and the Enercon 7.58 MW E-126 turbine.
Actual status (November 2017):
The first wind farm in Markbygden's phase 1 project was commissioned in 2014 and consists of 36 turbines, Enercon E-92 with 138m hub height. From December 2015 Svevind and Enercon set up a new structure. With that Enercon was taking over Svevind´s shares of the operational Skogberget wind farm and the partially commenced Ersträsk wind farm.
Additional 179 turbines which will complete phase 1, have been taken over by Svevind for both project ownership and realisation. This windfarm project is called Markbygden ETT (“ETT” means one in Swedish language) and will be, once realized, one of the largest single onshore wind farms in Europe. In November 2017 this project reached financial close and will be realized by a joint venture of GE Energy Financial Services (GE EFS) and Green Investment Group Limited (part of Macquarie Group). GE Renewable Energy will supply 179 of its 3.63 MW wind turbines with 137 meter rotors. The wind farm is expected to begin commissioning in the second half of 2018 and be fully operational by the end of 2019.
All power generated by the entire Markbygden phase 1 wind farms will be transferred to the existing Råbäcken transformer station for transmission to the Swedish 400kV national grid.
Markbygden phase 2 is the westernmost part of the wind power project in Markbygden with an area that covers about 160 km2. On December 10, 2015, the Environmental Court ruled on this second phase of the Markbygden project. The decision has gained legal force. This second phase will be connected to a new 400kV transformer station called Trolltjärn. The Markbygden phase 2 project has been taken over by Enercon in December 2015.
Markbygden phase 3 is the third, last and potentially the largest part of the overall wind power project in Markbygden. It is located between the villages of Koler and Långträsk in the western part of the project and Blåsmark to the east, entierly within Piteå municipality. The area of Markbygden phase 3 is approximately 33.5 km long and 2.5–6 km wide. The area is about 150 km2 in total. The wind farm of Markbygden phase 3 will consist of up to 442 wind turbines. The permit was granted on March 17, 2016. The decision of the Environmental impact assessment committee was appealed, after which the Land and Environmental Court announced a decision on the case on June 16, 2017. The decision of the Land and Environmental Court has thereafter been appealed to the Land and Environmental Superior Court. The Markbygden phase 3 wind farms are planned to be connected to the existing 400kV transformer station Råbäcken as well the transformer station Trolltjärn, under construction by Swedish TSA Svenska Kraftnät
See also
References
External links
- "Markbygden". Svevind. Retrieved 2017-07-10.