COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -The offshore wind industry has solutions that would address Swedish defence concerns, the CEO of renewable energy group Orsted said on Tuesday, after Sweden rejected applications to build 13 offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea.
Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson said on Monday that building wind farms in the Baltic Sea would pose defence risks, by making it harder to detect and shoot down missiles.
As Europe turns to renewable sources to diversify energy supplies away from Russian oil and gas, concerns have also risen about how to secure critical maritime infrastructure.
Sweden joined NATO this year in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“We fully understand the valid concerns from the armed forces and the Swedish government,” Orsted CEO Mads Nipper told journalists in the Danish capital Copenhagen.
The company has already collaborated with the military in other Baltic Sea countries Germany, Poland and Denmark when establishing offshore wind farms, he said.
“We are quite convinced that we could find solutions to serve the needs of both the armed forces and also the government,” Nipper said. “We will of course offer all the experiences and learnings that we have from collaborating with the military elsewhere.”
Jonson also said on Monday that the military had considered what he called “complementary measures” that would reduce the impact of wind farms on Sweden’s defence capabilities, but had concluded that was currently impossible.
“The military has also said there is more potential for building offshore wind on the west coast and in the Gulf of Bothnia,” he told reporters on Monday.
Wind firms operating in the Gulf of Bothnia said they were pushing ahead with projects there.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Simon Johnson in Stockholm, Editing by Louise Heavens and Gareth Jones)
