Vattenfall’s largest onshore wind farm to date is now complete. The last of the 84 wind turbines was installed on 26 January at Blakliden Fäbodberget in northern Sweden. The 353 MW array is expected to produce annually just over 1 billion kWh. The wind farm is jointly owned by Vattenfall, Vestas and AIP Management.
In northern Sweden, the transformation and electrification of industry and mining is under way, but much more electricity will be needed – Sweden’s electricity consumption is expected to double by 2045.
Construction of Blakliden Fäbodberget has now been under way for four years and in the past year around 800 components, of which 252 are rotor blades, have been transported to the wind farm site, which is in Åsele and Lycksele municipalities in Västerbotten in northern Sweden. The last turbines will soon be connected to the grid. After a trial period, the farm will go into commercial operation later this year.
"For the first three years, we were doing the groundwork for the installation and operation of the turbines in the wind farm,” says Kristoffer Arnqvist, construction project manager. “We then built the transformer stations and foundations, built roads and laid out the electric cables on site. The past year, we've lifted the turbines into place and connected them to the electricity grid in parallel, bit by bit.”
"There’s been plenty of snow here, which makes things difficult on the site. In recent weeks, the minus temperatures have varied greatly, sometimes to as low as -30 degrees. The cold makes the work more difficult for us, which makes these milestones in the project even more pleasing - it really is an achievement."
Vattenfall currently operates about 1200 WTGs in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Together they generated about 11 TWh of electricity in 2020.
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