Response to interpellation 2024/25:428 on the wind power funds
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD argues that the government allocated 340 million kronor for 2025 to municipalities with wind power and wants to increase this to 400 million kronor in 2027 1. KD argues that they are working on a wind power package to improve the conditions 1 and that Sweden has an electricity surplus but needs more available capacity 2. KD argues that Sweden has the lowest electricity prices in four years 3 and that base load ensures that the electricity grid can be utilized effectively 3. S argues that municipalities in Västernorrland are waiting for promised money 4. S argues that wind power is the electricity production that can be expanded on the largest scale to meet the electrification wave 5. S proposes that municipalities should receive 250,000 kronor annually for a modern wind turbine 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! Malin Larsson has asked me whether the information provided by the Ministry of Finance regarding the incentive compensation is correct, concerning both which municipalities are covered and the amounts, and whether the compensation to the municipalities will be paid out during 2025, as well as whether I and the government intend to further develop the incentive compensation for wind power.
In the budget for 2025, the Riksdag has, at the government's proposal, allocated 340 million kronor to be distributed to municipalities where there is wind power. The government does not intend to let these funds sit idle. The funds that are allocated for 2025 will be paid out to the municipalities during 2025.
The preliminary forecast that the Ministry of Finance communicated in September last year was based on early estimates and on the statistics for wind power in operation compiled by the Swedish Energy Agency. This meant, among other things, that municipalities were calculated to have wind power based on where the connection point to the power grid is located instead of in which municipality the actual wind turbines are located. This naturally needs to be adjusted so that the starting point for the distribution is where the wind turbines are actually located. I cannot say today when this work is finished – we are now in March 2025 – or how large the adjustment will be compared to the forecast for individual municipalities, but at the national level, the figure is the same as then, 340 million kronor.
The Government has, in the budget bill for 2025, made an assessment of the expansion rate for the next three years. This implies a calculated increase in the compensation to the municipalities to 370 million kronor for 2026 and 400 million kronor in 2027.
The Government is working on developing a wind power package, which aims to improve the conditions for an efficient expansion of wind power through strengthened incentives and increased acceptance. The support to the municipalities is the first step in this package. In addition, the Government is preparing measures to implement the three compensation proposals presented in the report *The Value of the Wind*, SOU 2023:18. If those proposals are implemented, the local community will be able to receive a share of the revenues from a wind farm, the neighbors will be entitled to a share of the revenue, and owners of adjacent properties will be entitled to a buyout of the property at a price corresponding to what the property would have been worth if the park had not been constructed.
Malin Larsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I have, therefore, submitted this interpellation because our municipalities are waiting for their promised wind power funds.
In the autumn, at a press conference, the minister, together with the Minister for Climate and Environment, presented a new support for land-based wind power. The day after the budget bill had been presented, the Ministry of Finance published lists of how much each municipality would receive. The municipalities could then include this in their own budgets for 2025.
The municipalities in Västernorrland have for a long time taken a great responsibility for the entire country's energy supply. Our rivers have supplied Sweden with energy for decades, and later this has been expanded to include a large part of the wind power that exists in the country today – wind power that produces energy which is largely delivered to other parts of the country. The impact is great, and the municipalities and citizens who take responsibility for the country's energy supply are well worthy of this compensation.
So far, however, no money has been paid out to municipalities that have allowed wind power to be built. In my home region of Västernorrland, all municipalities are waiting for a total compensation of 62.5 million kronor. The municipalities of Ånge, Sollefteå, and Örnsköldsvik have the highest installed wind power capacity, and the three municipalities are waiting for around 15 million kronor each.
The answer given to the media and in response to my previous written question was that the design of the compensation to the municipalities is not quite finalized and that the issue is being prepared in the Government Offices, despite the fact that calculations and amounts have already been presented to each municipality.
This obviously causes concern among the municipalities that are waiting for the wind power money – municipalities that have actually taken responsibility, led the way, and expanded wind power. The question now is whether the information that came from the Ministry of Finance in September 2024 can be relied upon. Can the municipalities count on at least these funds being paid out during the year? It is the presented figures that the municipalities have already counted on to maintain their welfare and avoid layoffs.
The planning conditions for the affected municipalities are undermined if they are changed during the year. Given that welfare has not been prioritized in recent years, this is a good addition for municipalities that are struggling financially.
Now the minister has answered that the information provided by the Ministry of Finance is not quite correct regarding the incentive compensation and that it must be adjusted, but that the money will be paid out during 2025, which is good. But as I now interpret the minister's answer, the municipalities can therefore count on the specified amount if the wind turbines are in the municipality. Is that correct?
The Minister says here that one does not quite know exactly how it will turn out or how many who are affected. But I still wonder if there is no kind of estimate of how large the error has become, how large an amount must be adjusted, and how many municipalities are, in that case, affected by it.
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! Thanks to Malin Larsson for relevant follow-up questions to a very important interpellation!
I want to start by underlining and, Madam Speaker, acknowledging what Malin Larsson says here. I have great understanding that there are many municipalities waiting for this.
The question is about how we should increase the incentive for people to want to say yes to wind power despite the encroachment it entails on nature and in many residential areas in many municipalities. If one is involved in taking this responsibility – which Malin Larsson points out that many municipalities, not least in Västernorrland, have done – one should feel that it is seen and that it is rewarded.
The question of how we should create incentives has been discussed for many years, and now we finally have a decision on a basic framework for how this shall be calculated for the municipalities. We have set a price tag. There are funds set aside. It shall be paid out during this year. But then one wants to know when and on exactly what basis. The bases in the model are clear.
I understand the frustration, but during the presentation that we made in the autumn from the government's side, we were clear that we would return with details regarding the framework. Then a calculation example was given of what it could mean for municipalities that already have wind power, where the basis was taken from the data from Energimyndigheten.
But common sense must also prevail. I believe there are few who would appreciate a model where one starts from where the connection point is instead of where the actual wind turbine stands.
With that said: The frustration will need to persist for a while longer regarding when the money will be received and exactly how much it will be. We will, just as we said in the autumn, return in detail on this.
Malin Larsson (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you to the Minister for the answers so far!
Regardless of whether it was an example or not, the Ministry of Finance presented the exact amounts for each municipality – what each municipality would receive.
In Västernorrland, it is primarily three of our municipalities that are waiting for the wind power money. They are Örnsköldsvik, Sollefteå and Ånge.
Ånge municipality has long been an attractive municipality for land-based wind power. Several large wind farms have been built, and it continues to be designed, planned, and built. The large amounts of energy produced through wind power also enable large investments, which are being carried out, on sustainable industrial symbiosis and hydrogen production in Ånge municipality.
Hydrogen production will extend the local value chain, which gives Ånge municipality better conditions for a positive social development with more local jobs. In the long run, it will also become a more vibrant place to work and live in.
The intensive industry of the scale that is now planned and being built in Ånge municipality requires a well-developed infrastructure and planning. During the last decade, preparations have been made successively in Ånge, but the entire development work started with the establishments of wind power in the municipality.
The new industrialization in Ånge municipality will entail great opportunities for local value retention in the form of new jobs and the expansion of the community. The new establishments involve direct jobs both in the form of employment and in the form of assignments for subcontractors.
We have previously debated here in the chamber the incentives for getting more wind power in place. It is an incredibly important issue all over the country. The construction of wind turbines affects residents, landowners, outdoor life, and the municipalities.
I live alone in Västernorrland. That the wind power issue is engaging, I have seen firsthand – many times. I have seen the concern, the conflicts, and the fears that can arise when wind power is discussed and established. But today I also see increasingly the opportunities, the optimism for the future, the growth, and the jobs that wind power, with its much-demanded renewable electricity, contributes to.
Many of our municipalities in the county, where we have a large expansion of renewable energy, see a future today with new establishments and with new green jobs that will come because there is a large and secure supply of renewable energy via both wind power and hydropower.
But the municipal veto stops many wind power projects. Incentives are needed. Money is needed that comes in and that the municipalities can budget with.
Sweden needs more electricity production in a short time to accelerate the climate transition, meet the uncertain global situation, and strengthen the industry's competitiveness.
Based on this, I want to ask the Minister: Does the Minister consider that land-based wind power should be expanded significantly, and which measures does the Minister see as most important to prioritize in order to quickly increase the availability of cheap electricity?
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! Sweden's big problem is not that we have a shortage of electricity. We have a very large electricity surplus. Sweden is one of the countries in the EU that has the smallest import need. But on critical days we have an import need because we do not have enough electricity evenly distributed throughout the year.
It is about available power, electricity that is available for our heavy industries and our companies and that they can connect to. It does not help that on certain days we have a massive surplus. That goes beyond our country's borders, because there is no sensible way to store all that electricity. That electricity goes to export. Other days, we need to import instead.
In the meantime, we have companies that are forced to say no to business establishments and municipalities that are forced to say no to new factories and new jobs because we have a power production that is far too weather-dependent.
With that said: The Government is now doing a lot to ensure, in the short, medium, and long term, that we release more electricity production but also more power from the electricity that is produced. This means that we are paving the way for both more wind power and more nuclear power. These do not stand against each other.
I have just landed after being in Brussels. I was at an energy ministers' meeting with my ministerial colleagues in the EU. Some countries are still in this struggle between different types of power. Sweden has, at least with this government, left the struggle between nuclear power and wind power. All good forces are needed now.
I think the best evidence of this is all the measures that this government is now managing to take to pave the way for wind power. A red-green government did not manage that. But I know that there is a great consensus between the government and, for example, the Social Democrats, whom Malin Larsson represents.
It is about the incentive for wind power expansion, which we are talking about now. It is about rewarding those who already have it and about increasing the incentives to say yes moving forward. It is about compensation to neighbors and about local benefit of wind power. It is about higher property tax for wind power, which can then also be passed on.
We have done a lot to speed up the permit processes for offshore wind power. The question of whether it is possible to do more together with the defense so that the defense can say yes to more offshore wind farms, we have exhausted. We have now issued assignments to increase incentives broadly. This could involve economic incentives and broader incentives so that the wind power companies will deliver more power from all the electricity produced by wind power.
One can look at this in the short term. If we are not to do as many other countries do – reverse and start importing oil and gas again, which Sweden does not want – we need to release more wind power. But it must be wind power that can provide more available electricity where it is needed and when it is needed. It should not only be for export.
I think Ånge is an excellent example. It is a good example of dialogue between the municipality, residents, and companies. The work that has been done regarding hydrogen is also a good example. We also have examples from the west coast, where they are now looking at possibilities to store the energy produced from wind power in the form of hydrogen, which means it can be used in a completely different way, more evenly distributed throughout the year. Indeed, a lot is happening in the field.
Madam Speaker! In order to have answered clearly on the second question from the interpellor, I say: Yes, we are prepared to do more to increase the incentives here, and it falls within the framework of, among other things, the mandate that we have already given regarding how we can get more effect out of electricity from wind power.
Malin Larsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answers and for the debate.
It is in Ånge that it is happening, and it is the wind power that enables that development. Furthermore, both planning and construction are currently taking place in Ånge for storage connected to the wind power. So, many good things are happening.
When we Social Democrats were in government, we commissioned the incentive study. The current government, however, struck out important parts of it. This autumn, we Social Democrats also presented a number of new proposals for reforms to increase the production of cheap electricity and improve the conditions for wind power expansion. In addition to the compensation for already built wind power, which we are talking about here today, our proposal means that the municipalities would receive 250,000 kronor per year for a standard-sized modern wind turbine. That is significantly more money than the government has presented.
Wind power is the electricity production that can be expanded on the largest scale in the next ten years for Sweden to meet the wave of electrification and climate transition we are in. We want to bring new industries here, and we want to transition. Then that electricity is needed.
I hope that we can trust the Minister for Energy when it comes to the money arriving as soon as possible and also that these wind power funds are a first step towards a more just distribution of the values from the country's power production. More is needed, however. It must involve means that benefit the regions, and we need to establish rules of the game so that both municipalities as well as investors and affected residents know what applies.
What will the Minister now focus on to improve the incentives and conditions for the expansion of wind power and to ensure that Sweden has stable, long-term and legally secure processes?
Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)
Madam Speaker! Sweden now has the lowest electricity prices in four years. But if you ask the Swedish people, I think few would say off the top of their heads: Yes, I notice that it is much cheaper this winter compared to the previous winter and also much cheaper compared to the winter before that.
On one's electricity bill, one sees that one now not only pays quite a lot for the electricity, even though we have some of the lowest electricity prices in the entire EU and much lower electricity prices than four years ago, but also has to pay quite a lot for the electricity grid. A weather-dependent power production requires much more electricity grid. We must also be aware of that when we build the whole of an electricity system.
If we push in a lot of base load, i.e., hydropower and nuclear power, we can, however, utilize existing power grids much more effectively. That is, there is a difference between electricity production and electricity production. The intermittent power production and the base load function in completely different ways in the system. One is synchronous, and the other is asynchronous – this is physics, not politics. That is why we need to have those types of power together in the system.
If one has more base load in the system, it is easier to move the electricity from point A to point B, from where it is produced to where it is needed. Then we do not need to spend as many billions of billions on the electricity grid. This certainly also needs to happen, but not at the same dramatic pace. This is something I want to emphasize with some emphasis.
The concluding, important answer is that the two new assignments we have given to strengthen intermittent power production's contribution to a robust energy system are important. How do we ensure that we provide incentives that do not only reward a lot of electricity that comes and goes when it wants, but also provide capacity, so that we can stand strong in a tough time regardless of whether it is in Västernorrland or other parts of Sweden?
I thank you for the interpellation.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.