Raging towards wind farm: "Sound will destroy our tourist concept"

Töreboda's municipal council has so far been positive about Rabbalshede Kraft's plans to build ten unusually high wind turbines in the area. It is an area with smaller hills and lakes with sparse pine forest.

The ten wind turbines would end up in the municipality of Töreboda, but out here the residents do not count on the municipal boundaries as closely as three municipal boundaries are close by - besides Töreboda also Gullspång and Laxå.

The latter two are opposed to the park, among other things, because they consider it to sabotage tourism initiatives in the area.

The nearest settlement is in the village of Åsebol in Gullspång municipality. There Arne Albertsson is the ten generation at Fårgården and the family has invested heavily in the tourism industry.

"People want to come here and hike for the sake of silence," says Arne Albertsson, who now does not dare to continue investing, even though grandchildren are ready to take on.

Lotta Albertsson, who is not related to Arne, has invested large sums in another tourist resort. Now she is very worried that the wind farm will become a reality. Something she thinks would ruin their tourism venture.

Rabbalshede has previously operated Wind Park Lyrestad with 22 wind turbines. Eight of these are located in Töreboda municipality and have a height of 200 meters. There, residents in the immediate area have complained about the noise level from the wind turbines that they compared to large aircraft passing.

Christer Florman from the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation believes that it is an unusually stupid place to place a wind farm on a nature conservation point of view.

- It is unsuitable because there is a functioning pea population that reproduces here. This would be destroyed and will mean the spring disappears from the area, says Christer Florman.

When the decision was just up in the council last week, it stopped, at least temporarily, in Töreboda. After a long debate, the matter was re-submitted. But the chairman of the Töreboda municipal council, Bengt Sjöberg (M) sees no reason to say no. Hear him tell in the clip below.

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