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WIND POWER

Norway court gives wind power opponent prison sentence for harassment

A man in Norway has been given a custodial sentence for intimidating an engineer from the Trønderergi company.

Norway court gives wind power opponent prison sentence for harassment
File photo: AFP

The engineer was working for the company on a new wind farm at Frøya off Norway’s west coast, newspaper VG reports.

According to the Fosen District Court judgement, the man drove recklessly and close to the engineer’s car on May 14th last year on a nearby island, Hitra.

He overtook the engineer before “repeatedly braking sharply in front of her” the court wrote in its verdict.

The woman was on her way home from work when the incident occurred.

The man comes from the area and is an active opponent of wind power, according to VG’s report.

The Frøya wind farm is the subject of substantial opposition amongst local residents, the newspaper writes. The facility is scheduled to be completed and operational by the end of the year.

In court, the accused said he had driven from Trondheim and that the purpose of the trip had been to go to Frøya to show sympathy for protesters there.

The defendant acknowledged that he was driving past the offender and that he had slowed down, but denied braking aggressively.

According to the court’s verdict, the woman said that she was scared and “feared for her life” due to the actions, and contacted police from her car.

The man was sentenced to 75 days in jail, with the court concluding that his driving led to “several situations where serious traffic accidents involving personal injury or major material damage could easily have occurred” and that “the car was used for the purpose of intimidating and threatening the target”.

His driver's license was revoked for six months and he was ordered to pay 10,000 kroner in compensation and 5,000 kroner in costs.

He is yet to decide whether to appeal the sentence, defence lawyer Jon Reidar Aae told VG.

READ ALSO: Why Norway imported more energy than it exported in 2019

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ENERGY

Denmark and Baltic countries plan ‘seven times more’ offshore wind energy

Denmark and other nations bordering the Baltic Sea will announce on Tuesday a plan to dramatically boost offshore wind energy by 2030. 

Denmark and Baltic countries plan 'seven times more' offshore wind energy

Today, just under 3 gigawatts are generated in the Baltic Sea, about half of which is Danish energy. An additional 1,100 to 1,700 offshore wind turbines will be needed to bring the total energy capacity to nearly 20 gigawatts in 2030.

A joint agreement to reach these levels in coming years is to be announced by participating countries on Tuesday, according to newspaper Politiken.

The newspaper reports a draft declaration it has seen in relation to the agreement, which will be presented at a summit at the Danish prime minister’s residence, Marienborg, north of Copenhagen on Tuesday.

READ ALSO: Denmark keen to join with Baltic countries on wind energy

Should the amount of additional energy reported by Politiken be produced, as many as 22 to 30 million households could see their energy needs covered by wind power.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen talked up the importance of wind power in comments to Politiken.

“The war in Ukraine and climate change are being met with now. We have two crises on the table at the same time. We need to speed up green energy conversion and we need to free ourselves from Russian fossil fuels,” she said.

Frederiksen is participating in the summit on behalf of Denmark. Senior officials and leaders and from Germany, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and the EU Commission will also attend.

The summit was earlier scheduled to take place on Denmark’s Baltic island Bornholm but was moved due to a strike at Bornholm’s airport, which was not resolved until late on Monday.

A total of 2.8 gigawatts of wind power are currently produced in the Baltic Sea according to the Danish energy ministry.

Potentially, that could be increased to 93 gigawatts by 2050, an EU Commission assessment has found.

Earlier this year, Frederiksen hosted a green energy summit in western Danish city Esbjerg, at which the government signed an agreement with Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany for a ten-fold increase of offshore wind power capacity in the North Sea to 150 gigawatts by 2050.

On Monday, the Danish parliament voted through plans to increase production wind energy at a wind turbine park off Bornholm from 2 to 3 gigawatts. The facility will be connected to Germany.

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