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General acceptance is one of the most important factors behind the well-advanced wind power planning in the northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia. At present, ongoing research and reports on over 2,500-3,500 MW exist for this area, and chief inspector Tuukka Pahtamaa at the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY-Centre) of North Ostrobothnia in the city of Oulu describes that at the moment there are approx. 30 different projects the environmental impact of which is currently being assessed.

There is a great interest among wind power operators wishing to establish operations in the area in question, and the main reason for the achieved acceptance is, according to Pahtamaa, the openness. The fact that wind power turbines have existed in the region for a long time already is generally thought to have increased the sympathies towards wind power, and many prejudices have been erased as the general public has been able to see wind power farms in real life.

At the ELY-Centre of North Ostrobothnia, it has been specified that an assessment of environmental impact will in normal cases be required for ten wind power turbines or 30 MW altogether; a number of smaller wind power farms are being planned. In cases where environmental impact assessment is not required, the permission process is carried out through normal land use planning. Previously, the discussion concentrated on large offshore wind farms, but at present, most initiatives have been moved ashore. A contributing factor for this is naturally that the feed-in tariff is not large enough to cover the costs of offshore farms.

One of the reasons that have facilitated the area around the city of Raahe, specifically, to proceed so well with planning, is naturally the city's interest to make use of the possibilities of wind power, as well as good cooperation between the wind power operators. In many cases, the operators have together assessed environmental impacts on areas close to each other.

The areas that have been planned are for the most part areas owned by one large landowner only and therefore no problematic situations have risen where compensation to neighboring areas would need to have been paid. At the ELY-Centre of North Ostrobothnia, however, the opinion is that these kinds of cases should be treated case-specifically, since restricted use of neighboring land areas should unquestionably be compensated.

Author: Kristian Blomqvist / Novia University of Applied Sciences