The Government has taken a negative decision on 16 applications for offshore wind energy in the EEZ. The rejection decision means that the development of the offshore wind projects concerned will be delayed. It is important to ensure the positive development of offshore wind power in Finland, as offshore wind power, due to its high electricity generation potential, is of great importance for the electrification of major industrial investments. Delays in the projects may prevent the realization of investments in Finland. The development of offshore wind power in Finland needs to be supported by clear decisions from the Government to clarify the conditions for investment in Finland.
Legislation on offshore wind power in the Finnish EEZ is under preparation, and according to the Government, the approval of applications for exploitation rights would undermine the guiding effects of the law under preparation. According to the decision now taken by the Government, all applications for offshore wind projects in the Finnish EEZ have been rejected for the time being. Further development of the projects is not prohibited, but in practice, the decision will significantly slow down the completion of the projects.
Finnish offshore wind has significant potential for clean electricity production and plays an essential role in attracting large industrial investments, such as hydrogen projects, to Finland. It is therefore important for the Finnish Government to make decisions that will create an investment environment in the EEZ that will ensure good conditions for offshore wind project development in the future.
“Offshore wind developers have invested a lot of resources in the development of the projects in question. At this point, expectations are growing high for the new EEZ legislation and future tenders in the EZZ . In practice, the decision we are now seeing means a slowdown in project development. It is therefore important to ensure the conditions for the development of domestic offshore wind power. One way is to continue the development of the offshore wind property tax model, which was not completed during the last government term. At the moment, it seems that the reform of offshore wind property taxation is stalled again, now as part of the stalled progress of the overall property tax reform”, comments Veera Villikari, Advocacy Manager at the Finnish Wind Power Association.
In the view of the Finnish Wind Power Association, it would be justified to implement a property tax solution for offshore wind power as a separate legislative project from the point of view of clean electricity production and green transition investments. In addition, future tenders for the EEZ should not be delayed too long, as competition in the Baltic Sea region is fierce and there are potential offshore wind energy areas outside Finland.
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