Windpower is North Sweden’s new primary industry

februari 3rd, 2012

North Sweden is  Sweden’s center for wind power. There are plans for 6000 new plants over the next 15-20 years. If all these plants become reality, it would mean that the North holds three times as many wind turbines as the number of turbines in all of Sweden today.

- It’s a new primary industry that is emerging, says Jens Sperens, project manager for ”Vindfyr”, that collects and presents experiences from the expansions of wind power in the North of Sweden.

Hundreds of wind farms are to be built in forests and mountains in Gävleborg, Västernorrland, Västerbotten, Norrbotten and Jämtland. Only in Jämtland 1700 turbines are planned. Gävleborg and Norrbotten has 1400 works each placed on the map.

The number of realized turbines depends on the availability of electricity, if the projects are authorized and political decisions. But even the availability of new technologies to protect the turbines from the cold and ice plays an important role in the development.

A platform for information exchange to solve the challenges of cold and ice is the conference- Winter Wind in Skellefteå. The first conference was held in 2008 with 160 participants. This year gathers 376 experts in wind energy in cold climates in 7 to 8 February.  The recent progress in measuring the formation of ice and ice and chunks of ice from the turbine and rotor blades will be the main topics for discussion.

The conference will among other things include six manufacturers presenting their system for deicing. Five of the systems are brand new, a couple has not yet reached the market. A new report on the development of systems to detect and remove ice from wind turbines will also be presented, by René Cattin from the Swiss company Meteotest.

Further, Matthias Rapp , President of the Swedish Wind Power Technology Centre, will talk about the plans to create a test center for wind energy in cold climate in the North of Sweden.

Dutch owners taking over Åsele camp ground

februari 3rd, 2012

Willy van den Brink visited the camp ground in Åsele November last year. In December the contract was signed and in January 2012, Willy and her family moved from Holland to Åsele in North Sweden.

-My intention is to make the camping what it should be, we are here to stay, says Willy van den Brink. I am confident that we will have a wonderful camping in two years time.  We have started the work, there is a lot to do but hard work does not scare me. I moved here for the silence and the nice people who live here, she says.

Willy ran a business with 20 employees in Holland, and had been doing that for 25 years. But she does not regret her decision: – This is my dream and I’m so happy to be here, she says.