Administrative authorization process

● Environmental Code
● Planning and Building Act
● Ordinance 1998:899
● Ordinance 2013:251

Environmental permit (wind onshore and offshore): In Sweden, the environmental permit procedure entails several elements that are often processed as separate permitting procedures, e.g., EIA, building permit, environmental permit and consultation of stakeholders. The legal basis for the environmental permit is established in Chapter 9 of the Environmental Code (1998:808), which also applies to wind power installations. The environmental permit process includes conducting an EIA, which is codified in more detail in the Chapter 6 of the Environmental Code (1998:808). An environmental permit is needed when:
• two or more wind turbines are located together and each of them have a total height over 150m;
• one wind turbine has a total height over 150m and is located in such a constellation as previously mentioned; or
• a wind turbine has a total height over 150m and is located together with another such wind turbine, if its operation starts later than the operation of another wind.
The competent authority for applying for an environmental permit is usually the county administrative board but in case of projects with fewer than 2 wind turbines under 150m or fewer than 7 wind turbines under 120m, the planning authority is the municipality in which the project would be located. EIA is included in the environmental permitting process and involves consultations with potentially affected stakeholders and the general public. Once the developer submits the EIA to the county administrative board, the application materials and the EIA are made available for public consultation as well as a round of comments from other relevant authorities. In Sweden, the municipality in which the wind power project would be located has the right to veto the said project at any point of the environmental permit process.
Smaller wind power projects (e.g. are exempted from the environmental permit procedure and can simply notify the county administrative board. However, they may require a building permit (see below).
Environmental permits usually contain provisions about the deadline for commissioning the wind farm. It is not possible to extend the validity of the permit: instead, the applicant has to submit a new application and start the procedure over from the beginning.
Nearshore wind turbines are permitted in a similar manner as onshore turbines if they are located less than 12 nautical miles from the coast, in the Swedish territorial waters. In addition, water-based permits and a permit according to the Continental Shelf Act are necessary for all installations located on sea.
Building permit: Not all RES installations need a building permit, but most small or medium-sized wind turbines that do not require a separate environmental permit do. ‘Mini-installations’ with the maximum height of 20m and maximum rotor diameter of 3m may be exempted from a building permit if they are not located on a building or are not closer than their own height to a building. The second category of small installations, ‘yard installations’ are wind turbines between 20m and 50m of height and/or have rotors with a diameter of more than 3m. They are required to obtain a building permit but are usually exempt from the environmental permit. Wind power projects larger than the limits for ‘yard installations’ are required to obtain the environmental permit, and the procedure integrates also the building permit process.
The competent authority for applying for a building permit is the Building Committee of the local municipality (Chapter 9 section 20, Planning and Building Act). The building permit procedure includes a hearing of neighbours or other locals that would be directly affected by the planned installation. When granted, the building permit decision also contains information on the period of validity of the permit and the authority in charge of possible inspections (Chapter 9, section 40 Planning and Building Act).
Permits for small and medium-sized ground-sourced heat pumps: Most heat pumps are not subject to any permitting procedures, with the exception of geothermal heat pumps requiring a certain amount of drilling. They are subject to the ordinance 1998:899, which states that all heat pump installations extracting heat from the ground, surface water or groundwater are required to either report their activity or apply for a permit. The installer is also required to report on the conducted drilling activity to the Geological Survey of Sweden. The minimum requirement is that the installations are reported to the municipality, in which they are located (art. 17, Ordinance 1998:899). The municipality also has the right to require the installations to acquire a ‘drilling permit’ (names vary in different municipalities) (ordinance 2013:251; ordinance 1998:899). The municipality can decide for itself how the permit is applied and what is required for an application.
Small heat pumps (less than 10 MW) that draw heat from earth or water do not need to apply for an environmental permit (SEPA, 2020).

● County Administrative Boards
● Municipal Building Committees
● Geological Survey of Sweden