The wind power company OX2 builds on both sides of the Baltic Sea, but it is much easier to get permission in Finland than in Sweden. Finnish municipalities do not have the same opportunity to place a municipal veto and receive financial compensation.
Peter Tornberg is business manager at OX2:
– In the Finnish process, they have succeeded in getting the municipalities to want expanded wind power. It has to do with the fact that property tax in Finland goes to the municipality. The property tax does not go to the state as in Sweden.
The share of electricity that comes from wind power is steadily increasing in Finland. Today, production covers approximately ten percent of the country’s electricity needs, but according to the Finnish Wind Power Association, the share will double within just a few years.
The municipality of Närpes is a telling example of the wind power boom. Today there are 44 wind turbines here and more than 50 are under construction, and even more wind turbines are in the planning stage.
Närpes is currently building both a school and a health care centre. These are financed, among other things, by the property tax from the wind turbines.
