Sweden Scraps Plans For 13 Offshore Windfarms Over Russia Security Fears (theguardian.com) 27
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Sweden has vetoed plans for 13 offshore windfarms in the Baltic Sea, citing unacceptable security risks. The country's defence minister, Pal Jonson, said on Monday that the government had rejected plans for all but one of 14 windfarms planned along the east coast. The decision comes after the Swedish armed forces concluded last week that the projects would make it more difficult to defend Nato's newest member.
The proposed windfarms would have been located between Aland, the autonomous Finnish region between Sweden and Finland, and the Sound, the strait between southern Sweden and Denmark. The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad is only about 310 miles (500km) from Stockholm. Wind power could affect Sweden's defence capabilities across sensors and radars and make it harder to detect submarines and possible attacks from the air if war broke out, Jonson said. The only project to receive the green light to was Poseidon, which will include as many as 81 wind turbines to produce 5.5 terawatt hours a year off Stenungsund on Sweden's west coast. "Both ballistic robots and also cruise robots are a big problem if you have offshore wind power," Jonson said. "If you have a strong signal detection capability and a radar system that is important, we use the Patriot system for example, there would be negative consequences if there were offshore wind power in the way of the sensors."
The proposed windfarms would have been located between Aland, the autonomous Finnish region between Sweden and Finland, and the Sound, the strait between southern Sweden and Denmark. The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad is only about 310 miles (500km) from Stockholm. Wind power could affect Sweden's defence capabilities across sensors and radars and make it harder to detect submarines and possible attacks from the air if war broke out, Jonson said. The only project to receive the green light to was Poseidon, which will include as many as 81 wind turbines to produce 5.5 terawatt hours a year off Stenungsund on Sweden's west coast. "Both ballistic robots and also cruise robots are a big problem if you have offshore wind power," Jonson said. "If you have a strong signal detection capability and a radar system that is important, we use the Patriot system for example, there would be negative consequences if there were offshore wind power in the way of the sensors."
Yet another price (Score:4, Insightful)
When you have a belligerent around running its own economy into the ground and invading neighbours for a resource infusion... you have to waste money defending against that aggression.
If everybody would just stay in their own damn yard, we'd have so much more productivity to make people's lives better instead of spending it on a giant game of Risk on behalf of a handful of rich assholes.
Vatnik shill detected (Score:5, Informative)
Russia chose to fail while its counterpart China succeeded spectacularly. Russia is not EUROPEAN country, and a bit of territory does not make it one. Russia is eternal existential enemy to Western civilization of which it was never part.
NATO is a VOLUNTARY alliance of nations not wanting to be victims of eternal Russian imperialism. Of course as a shill you won't find it odd that most of the former Warsaw Pact joined NATO to prevent a repeat invasion.
Re: (Score:3)
Russia chose to fail while its counterpart China succeeded spectacularly.
It's not that simple.
Russia turned commie in 1917. By 1991, there was no longer any living memory of how markets worked. People had been born into corruption and cynicism. They were fed lies with their breastmilk. They knew nothing else.
China turned commie in 1949 and started opening up in 1978. Living people had been shopkeepers and factory managers who understood markets and supply & demand.
The level of corruption in China was much less and also different. In Russia, you pay a bribe to some bureaucrat
Re:Don't Blame the Boogie Man (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I think I'll decline to blame the organizations Ukraine was looking to for peace and prosperity in the face of Russian aggression.
Putin is, after all, NATO's greatest salesman.
Social saboteurs like you remind me (Score:5, Interesting)
what a tragedy failing to nuke Moscow before Stalin got nukes really was.
Blame it on Sweden (Score:3)
Re:Blame it on Sweden (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think Putin's dumb enough or desperate enough to invade a NATO country, but you can be damn sure he'd sabotage a wind farm or use it to make sabre-rattling more credible. Especially if it made him look 'strong' domestically.
Re: (Score:3)
Plinking at a wind farm at sea is exactly the kind of petty shit the Russians would enjoy. Sweden is being wise here.
Re: (Score:3)
you can be damn sure he'd sabotage a wind farm
That isn't their worry. Their worry is that the wind farm will interfere with their air defenses and detecting incoming threats.
Oh for fucks sake (Score:1)
Confidence requires credible preparation. (Score:3)
That includes designing everything with military advantage in mind.
You're clearly too young to have experienced the early Cold War so you can have no idea regarding the permanent Russian threat, but while this may be incredibly difficult to understand there is more to maintaining secular democracy than wishful thinking.
Russia will never cease to be an enemy. It is not some modern nation temporarily afflicted with a bad administration, but I don't expect you to know that either since it's not an orthodox lef
What are ballistic robots? (Score:2)
Something ChatGPT just invented?
Sweden saw what happened to Germany and Finland. (Score:4, Insightful)
Ossis and other Kremlin shills ensured Germany would depend on Russian resource extraction so the usual pattern of former Commies monetizing their old connections would not just be confined to Russia.
It's worth reminding Russian history in that region gives every reason to be militarily prepared which includes reducing economic therefore social vulns. The Russo-Finnish war is still in living memory and Sweden knows Russia can easily finish returning to its natural (s)talinism Putin regrets losing.
War (Score:2)
Sure makes Peace difficult.
No good commie bastards ;) (Score:2)