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Wind power for northern Norway

The Fakken Wind Park has been officially opened. Photo: Troms Kraft

The Troms Kraft company officially opens the biggest wind power park in northern Norway.

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The wind park, the biggest in northern Norway and one of the biggest in the world north of the Arctic Circle, produces about 138 GWh/year, enough energy for 7000 Norwegian households. The project, developed by the company Troms Kraft, includes 18 wind power generators and a new 34 km long power line.

“Today is a historical day”, company director Anna Maria Aursund said at the opening ceremony on Tuesday, Nordlys reports. The wind generators located at Vannøya, near the city of Tromsø, has cost the company about 750 million NOK (€100 million).

Troms Kraft also plans to extend the wind park with offshore turbines placed in the nearby waters, Aursund says to NRK.

While Norway, fuelled by cheap hydropower, is only slowly developing its wind power potential, neighboring Sweden and Finland are investing significant money into wind power generation. As previously reported, several major wind power projects are now unfolding in northern Sweden, among them the Blaiken, Uljabuouda, Storliden and Jokkmokksliden projects. In addition, Swedish authorities have approved plans for the Markbygdens Wind Power project, which with its projected 1100 wind turbines will be one of the biggest on-shore wind power parks in all of Europe.