Stor-Rotliden

Wind conditions in Stor-Rotliden are good. The highest point in the area is about 570 metres above sea level with a terrain of low-growing forest. The wind farm generates just over 200 GWh of renewable electricity annually, corresponding to household electricity for close to 37,000 homes.

There are currently six people stationed in Fredrika to service and maintain the wind farm: an operations manager who works to optimise operations and a service manager and four technicians who repair and maintain the turbines. The Stor-Rotliden wind farm is also remotely monitored around the clock by a surveillance centre.

A cold start

The construction of Stor-Rotliden wind farm started in mid-June 2009 and was completed 18 months later. All 40 Vestas V 90 turbines were erected in two and a half months.

The construction project met particularly difficult challenges during the extremely cold winter of 2009/2010. Weather-bitten workers defied February's severe cold, snow and wind to keep construction going according to plan. Project Manager Kenneth Pettersson tells of how they reinforced foundations directly on the rock, dug and buried the wind farm's electrical cables, worked on walls and constructed the building that houses the transformer station, all in freezing cold conditions.

At the same time, the substantial project of constructing the power line from the wind farm to Tuggens power station in Lycksele was ongoing. A total of seven teams, amounting to about 20 people including local contractors, were working on digging, erecting masts and putting power cables in place for the 45-kilometre 130 kV power line.