SEV customers bear cost of delays to new wind farms

Delays to new wind farms will cost electricity consumers, while landowners and leaseholders lose the larger payments they have received for turbines on their land, KVF reports.

Landowners and leaseholders receive a small rent when wind turbines are installed on their land, as well as a larger payment known as an amp payment. “Owners and leaseholders can do whatever they want with the money,” said Tróndur G. Leivsson, director of Búnaðarstovan.

The leaseholder at Gellingarklettur, where Effo operates wind turbines, receives 480,000 kroner a year in amp payments. At Flatnahagi, where Magn operates turbines, the owner is Tórshavn Municipality, which receives 550,000 kroner a year. The agreements run for several years and the payments are adjusted for inflation, so the current amounts are higher than the figures from when the turbines were installed.

The former Environment Ministry, now the Ministry of Health and Energy, abolished amp payments last year and is working on a new system under which owners and leaseholders would receive only a fraction of what they previously earned. As a result, landowners and leaseholders are no longer willing to sign agreements for wind turbines on their land. The plan is now to expropriate the land, which is expected to delay the development of new wind farms around the country.

“The people who pay the cost when it takes longer to get the wind turbines up are electricity consumers, you and me,” said Hákun Djurhuus. As SEV prepares its budget for next year, the price is set to rise by 10 øre per kilowatt-hour.

Energy Minister Eyðdis Hartmann Niclasen is abroad and was unavailable for an interview. She said she had asked her department to prepare a proposal for a land-use plan that would set rents instead of using amp payments and other arrangements. The proposal is due next week.