Written by J, a, m, e, s, , B, a, r, r, o, n, r, e, r, from Mathias Andersson on Unsplash
It’s been a momentous week for wind turbines — but there’s no time to rest on the laurels of Mother Nature.
The first wind power station has opened in Norway since long-awaited legislation was passed last year to roll back the country’s restrictions on turbines. In a joint move, the two largest renewable energy providers in the Nordic country are expanding the number of wind farms to ease regulations that have slowed installations.
The Vallandry power station will be the country’s largest, with a capacity of 360 megawatts, said Kongso Borge, chief executive of farm operator Mesuron, in an interview with the Financial Times
It is to be constructed 50 miles south of the center of Oslo. Its turbines, designed by the Danish group Vestas, will span 200 miles — more than the distance between Los Angeles and Chicago — reaching the top of the North and Oseberg mountains.
Within minutes of opening on Wednesday, one of the country’s biggest wind farms, 888 megawatts Generalis, was knocked off its footing by fierce winds. As the billows of dust floated in the air, the ebullient Prime Minister Erna Solberg — who welcomed the Vallandry project to the government’s blog — was able to claim it as a triumph for wind power.
“As a result of Vallandry, we can say that Norway has the best position in the world regarding wind energy capacity and production,” she said.
More than 80% of the world’s wind power generation comes from the Nordic country, and recent months have seen development increase as prices drop.
“You could say the era of renewable energies is here — we are at a good level,” Solberg said.
But this is not yet the long-term view: The government is still “working towards reducing and capping the number of turbines in the country,” she added.
