Wind Farm, Sweden

The wind farm will be built at a hilly location that is currently used for commercial forestry. The farm will consist of 15 wind turbines, each more than 200 meters tall.

“Finally, we have started construction. The wind farm will, once its installed, produce 270 million kWh per year. This is a good contribution of renewable energy in an area where it is really needed. Everyone involved is highly committed and we are really looking forward to moving the project forward,” says Marika Åkerman, Project Manager at SR Energy, an energy company in Sweden that develop, construct and manage wind farms.

“We have historically received very good quality from NKT and were quick to recommend the AXAL-TT PRO 3.0 and AXALJ-TT EQV 36 kV cables to Kanonaden for this project. We knew that they would need cables that are very robust, yet easy to work with, and capable of surviving in Swedish conditions,” says Tomas Karlsson, Key Account Manager at Onninen, a Swedish-based wholesaler.

The project requires a good deal groundwork which has now started on site. Existing roads in the area need to be widened and some new ones will be built in order to construct the wind farm. “It’s great to get started with this project. Preparing the way for renewable energy is completely in line with what we want to do. There are great ambitions to achieve as much as possible before winter comes. We aim to have the foundations in place in October-November,” says Jakob Sahlander, Business Area Manager at Kanonaden.

The wind turbines will stand on rock-anchored foundations. This means that the foundations of each tower are attached to the rock in the ground, which requires significantly less concrete than normal.

“We always work hard to find areas where we can build in this way. It feels particularly good when environmental and economic interests can go hand in hand. In this case, rock anchoring is both cheaper and better from an environmental perspective,” explains Marika Åkerman.

The wind turbines themselves will be delivered in May 2024 and then installation will begin, to be completed in the fall of that year. Due to the height of the turbines, the weather will determine when the project can be fully completed.

“There is a lot of lifting to be done. The crane we use is 142 meters high and the wings of the turbines are 81 meters long and weigh around 23 tons. It's a real precision job to get them in place. We can't lift if the wind is more than nine meters per second at the top of the crane. So it's not possible to have an exact timetable because the weather determines a lot about how fast the assembly can go. But once they are in place, we will commission the turbines gradually, explains Marika Åkerman.

NKT will deliver 40 kms of cable from its factory in Falun. The AXAL-TT PRO 3.0 cable connects each turbine to the cable station, while the AXALJ-TT EQV cable will connect the substation to the grid network.

“AXAL-TT PRO 3.0 is a tough cable, it has a durable sheath that can be laid directly in the ground. A very good and well-proven cable that is used in many similar projects. We chose cables from NKT because they are of high quality and provide great support for the project. We have worked on wind farm projects together before and it has worked very well,” says Tomas Karlsson from Onninen.

“AXAL-TT PRO 3.0 has a jacket that is up to four times stronger than usual for this type of cable. The jacket has deformation zones which neutralize the force of penetrating rocks. This allows AXAL-TT PRO 3.0 to be laid and plowed in existing material which is important in this setting in this part of Sweden. Additionally, it withstands tough handling during installation and is easy for the installer to handle,” explains Mikael Åkerlund, Key Account Manager at NKT.