Response to interpellation 2022/23:101 on the decision regarding the decommissioning of cables
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the expansion of fossil-free energy production and permit processes. L argues that the government wants to accelerate the expansion through a technology-neutral perspective 1 and that they are working to speed up permit processes by cleaning up inefficient trials for the green transition. L believes that both wind power and nuclear power are needed for the climate transition 2 and that the lead times for modern nuclear power can be shorter than for large offshore wind farms 2. S argues that the government lacks a clear timetable and that it is vital that permits are granted quickly to secure investments and jobs 3. S argues that the government should back down from worsening the economic conditions for wind power.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! I have asked the Minister for Energy and Business when a decision regarding the application for the decommissioning of cables for the land connection to the Kriegers Flak wind farm is expected. The work within the government is distributed in such a way that it is I who shall answer the interpellation.
The application for the laying of cables within the Kriegers flak wind farm and land connection cables from the farm to land according to the Act (1966:314) on the Continental Shelf was received by the Government Offices on 24 May 2021.
I agree that it is important for the Swedish energy supply to quickly have more electricity production in place in southern Sweden. The Government continues to work to ensure that the processing of the matter is handled as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Otherwise, I cannot comment on ongoing matters or anticipate the government's upcoming decisions. At this point, it is not possible to say when the government will make its decision.
Fredrik Olovsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I must thank the Minister for the answer. Some information regarding when a decision can be reached is unfortunately absent, and it is regrettable that there is also no timetable and that the government cannot clearly signal that a decision can be made soon.
A wind power expansion on the Swedish Kriegers flak will, if the government makes a decision, have the capacity to contribute powerfully to the electricity production in southern Sweden. That the government grants permission as soon as possible is therefore a vital Swedish interest.
Sweden certainly has electricity production sufficient to meet demand, and it has increased significantly during recent years. Sweden exports electricity, for example, more than ever before. Net exports have doubled in eight years, from 15 terawatt-hours in 2014 to just over 30 last year. This corresponds to approximately 20 percent of all Swedish electricity production.
Even though Sweden produces more electricity than we use, the needs will increase in the future. With all the new industrial establishments that are now in the starting phases, with the transition of industrial processes that is planned in important Swedish base industries, the requirements for electricity supplies also increase in the future. It is not a question of a distant future, but these are fundamentally decisions that are needed now and electricity supplies that are needed for the coming years. These are investment decisions that are to be realized during the 2020s. If electricity production does not increase soon, the investments that are now being planned risk not being realized. Then Swedish jobs and, fundamentally, Swedish prosperity are threatened.
Against that background, it is of course regrettable in the broader discussion that the Sweden Democrats and the government have signaled a brake on the expansion of wind power, that is to say that it will become more difficult and more expensive, and thus that the uncertainty increases for the investors who are now at the starting blocks.
When so many major decisions regarding offshore wind power are now coming to the government's table, with Kriegers flak being the first, it raises some question marks about how the government will act in these matters. Is it full speed ahead that applies for the Minister and the government, for example in the matter that my interpellation concerns? Or is there another discussion ongoing in the government or together with the Sverigedemokraterna?
Since I have not received an answer to my specific question in the interpellation, I wonder if this type of matter will also be coordinated with the Sweden Democrats in the Government Offices. Does that, in that case, play any role in how the matter is handled?
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! I thank Fredrik Olovsson for the question.
As Fredrik Olovsson knows, I cannot comment on ongoing matters or anticipate the government's upcoming decisions, and I therefore cannot comment on the specific case you are asking about. However, I can assure you that this government wants nothing other than to accelerate, not brake, the work being done to expand our fossil-free energy production. That includes wind power. There are no disagreements there. The government is clear that we want to tackle energy issues with a technology-neutral perspective, in contrast to previous governments where there have obviously been energy types that have been of less favor.
This government focuses on several important climate issues during this mandate period. The expansion of specifically wind power is an important climate issue because we need a substantial expansion of fossil-free energy to enable both the electrification and the initiatives that Fredrik Olovsson highlighted in his post.
There is an industry in Sweden that is very keen on being proactive in the green transition. For it to be able to take place in Sweden, it is required that there is a predictable and stable energy production, but that is something that Sweden currently cannot offer. For that reason, this government needs to kick-start the work of reviewing the legislation that is now designed to scare away certain types of energy, but also review how pending investigations regarding, among other things, wind power and the municipalities' incentives not to exercise their veto rights are designed.
We have been eager to contribute in every possible way to ensuring that Sweden not only secures the energy supply that we are in danger of not having as things stand now, but also manages to expand the capacity we provide to the extent needed for the green industry to continue to operate in Sweden.
The forecast that the government sets out in the Tidö Agreement is more than a doubling of the electricity that Sweden needs to have. That is, we really need to expand our fossil-free production. It includes nuclear power, and it includes wind power. It includes all the fossil-free energy we provide.
As I mentioned in my previous post, we are doing everything to accelerate the permit processes. We also see that the handling of permit processes that Sweden has can be improved. Therefore, we have accounted for the fact that an issue that this government will handle is how our inefficient permit reviews affect the transition. This also applies to the expansion of wind power.
We have established in the Tidö Agreement that we shall address the excessively long permit processes, and that work has begun. There is no reason to delay it. We hope that a major advantage moving forward in the assessment of offshore wind power will be that we, in the government's new Ministry of Climate and Enterprise, can take responsibility for the whole and coordinate issues concerning, among other things, the assessment of offshore wind power.
Fredrik Olovsson (S)
Madam Speaker! When it comes to the work of shortening or speeding up the permit processes, we are in complete agreement. There are also a couple of important investigations that have been referred and are now on the government's desk. But there is no bill announced in the list of bills, so I must nevertheless urge the Minister to work even faster in this area.
It is also good that we agree that there is a global race, one might say, in the climate field. Companies around the world are competing to develop new fossil-free products and technologies, and the countries that are at the forefront of this transition are also those that will see the highest growth, the most new jobs, and the most prosperity.
I want, of course, that this should end up in Sweden. We Social Democrats also carried out initiatives in a government position aimed at making Sweden end up in this leading group. We went from Swedish industry being basically gone, according to the Alliance government, I believe that was the expression, to having a green industrial revolution all around in our country. Now, fossil-free steel can be manufactured in Sweden. We are building electric cars and electric boats, and in decommissioned industries, there will be battery factories. It creates thousands of new jobs here and now in the whole country, and it creates faith in the future in places that have had high unemployment and faith in the future among people who are worried about how the climate will be managed moving forward.
But these investments require increased electricity production, and not in a distant future. That is the problem. If there were plenty of time, there would be many alternatives. That is not the case here; instead, it is about getting this done during the coming years, during this decade.
The messages regarding wind power are that it is to be given worsened economic conditions. For example, the state is withdrawing from building a grid at sea.
In the previous budget round, the Minister was not a Member of Parliament. But then the right-wing parties significantly worsened the economic resources for the County Administrative Boards, which have a central role in the permit process.
There is a risk that at the end of this parliamentary term or at the beginning of the next, we will not have a large surplus of electricity and that the net import has turned into a deficit and an import need. It is therefore necessary for the government to change direction and withdraw the proposals that could hold back new investments in electricity production or perhaps even make them impossible. That would be bad for Sweden.
Madam Speaker! The companies that are now to make their decisions on where the factories should be built and where the investments should take place need to know that wind power is available in the near term. That is what they say, all of them. It can also be read about in the media if one were to doubt my word on that. Otherwise, there is a risk that these investments will end up in other countries, and that creates the risk that the green industrial revolution that started in our country will stall, with a loss of jobs and prosperity as a result.
Therefore, the government's own decision-making capacity now becomes completely crucial when a long series of offshore wind power projects need permits to come to fruition. Collectively, it is about up to 60 terawatt-hours, which is as much as all nuclear power in Sweden. The project that I bring up in my interpellation and which in this context is quite small corresponds to enough electricity to heat more than 500,000 Swedish homes, so do not waste away this opportunity now! Get the decision-making moving!
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! I note that Fredrik Olovsson is very proud that Sweden is so pioneering and leading in the work for transition that the industry is performing.
That is why it is so incredibly sad that the manufacturers of green steel and the owners of the battery factories and other things we are so proud of point out that the shortage of electricity hinders their operations enormously and that the permit processes for them to begin their operations are not working as they take tens of years.
I believe that it is a major reason why this government has had the opportunity to take office and the opportunity to clean up the mess that prevails regarding not only permit processes but also our way of managing our energy system. This government will, in fact, not proceed from ideological reasoning about which type of energy one likes the most.
Madam Speaker! Fredrik Olovsson refers to the energy supply that nuclear power contributes to here in Sweden and refers to the amount of energy we get from our nuclear power. That amount would have been much larger if the previous government had not dismantled so much of the functioning fossil-free energy production that Sweden previously had.
That is exactly why this government has decided in the Tidö Agreement that we shall address the excessively long permit processes and has begun that work 100 days in.
We also have coordination gains from the merger of departments that has occurred. A consequence of this concerns precisely the assessment of offshore wind power. One of our coordination gains is that continental shelf cases and the cases handled according to the Act on Sweden's Economic Zone are now handled by the same unit, namely the environmental assessment unit at the Ministry of Climate and Enterprise.
On January 1, this government added resources to be able to effectively handle the increased number of applications to build offshore wind power. In this year's budget, we have allocated increased resources so that the applications regarding specifically offshore wind power that have been received can be handled.
As I mentioned earlier, we have problems with our permit processes in Sweden – they take a very long time and are inefficient. This affects, in particular, the possibility of expanding wind power.
Then one can have a discussion about the cost issues, but that is not exactly where the shoe pinches. There are financial interests that want to contribute to the energy supply in Sweden, especially as the industry so clearly points out the enormous needs they have to utilize the expanded energy supply.
It is important that we have a stable energy supply, not least for Swedish households and companies. But as Minister for Climate and Environment, I am very keen that we in Sweden reach our climate goals and that the government works for an expansion of our fossil-free electricity production, from all types of energy, as quickly as possible – precisely so that we can reach our climate goals.
Fredrik Olovsson (S)
Madam Speaker! When it comes to the permit processes, we are in complete agreement that this needs to go much faster than it does today. There are also ready proposals from the government to be included in a bill so that we can vote them through together here in the chamber. That would, of course, be extremely important.
But it would also be immensely significant for wind power if the government backed down from the deteriorations that it wants to implement regarding wind power production in our country. Wind power is the type of energy that has the greatest opportunities to quickly contribute more electricity to all the growing industries that need certainty to get started.
Sweden must not miss the fantastic opportunity we now have to lead the climate transition but also obtain jobs and prosperity in that process. Here we have every opportunity to be world-leading, but that requires rapid handling by the government and that one turns away from the decisions they want to make which will worsen the situation for Swedish electricity production.
We have large surpluses today and export a lot. But if decisions of this type do not come in the coming years, we will, at the end of the mandate period, or at the beginning of the next, be dependent on imports and not be able to export.
A heavy responsibility now rests on the government when it comes to getting these messages and decisions in place. Otherwise, we will miss the chance that so many are hoping for so much.
Statsrådet Romina Pourmokhtari (L)
Madam Speaker! It is pleasing that we both, despite belonging to different parties, are so keen on expanding fossil-free electricity production in Sweden, and this includes wind power. But when it comes to the speed of the expansion of wind power, there is a big difference between land-based wind power, which can be established relatively quickly, and large, offshore wind farms. There, we are talking about completely different lead times. If one were to start from a more modern view of what nuclear power is and take into account the development that is occurring with, for example, SMR reactors and other things, we would be talking about lead times that are actually shorter than for large, offshore wind farms.
I do not quite share the view that wind power is what is going the fastest. There is some kind of competition going on as to who can ensure that supply chains and production as a whole proceed as quickly as possible so that the market advantages resulting from this can be utilized. It is very positive for the expansion of our energy system.
I believe, therefore, that it is important to keep in mind that we, from a political standpoint, should not get stuck on the idea that we should finance all this production with taxpayers' money, regardless of whether it concerns cables or something else, or the question of whether nuclear power is better than wind power. I believe, as I campaigned on last year, that we need both wind power and nuclear power to manage our climate transition.
I can assure Fredrik Olovsson that we are only accelerating and not slowing down the work of granting the permits required for offshore wind power.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.