Stockholm-based developer OX2 has submitted a permit application to build a 5.5 GW offshore wind farm in the Swedish Economic Zone between the islands of Gotland and Öland in the Baltic Sea.
The wind farm, named Aurora, for which OX2 previously applied for a Natura 2000 permit, will be comprised of up to 370 wind turbines, with a maximum height of 370 m. With a total installed capacity estimated at 5,500 MW, electricity production from the planned wind farm will be about 24 TWh per year, which corresponds to the electricity consumption of about 5m households, or about 17% of the total electricity consumption in Sweden. According to OX2, it would cut CO2 emissions by 14 m tonnes per year.
“This is the next step to realise the Aurora wind farm. Together with our other planned offshore wind farms it constitutes a significant part of the electricity production Sweden needs, to reach the climate targets and to secure the production and energy independence of Sweden, said Hillevi Priscar, country manager, OX2 Sweden.
The project is in an early development stage and is part of OX2 Sweden’s project development portfolio, which by the end of the first quarter of 2022 amounted to 11.7 GW. The wind farm would potentially be the largest single project in the world. Only Ørsted’s Horsea project in the UK would be larger in terms of combined capacity when fully built, with four wind farms totalling 7.5GW.
