In Gurseröd, in the middle of Tanum municipality in Bohuslän, the company Helios Nordic Energy wants to build a solar park on 15 hectares of agricultural land. Both the municipality and the county administrative board have previously said no – but in the Land and Environment Court, the company was given the go-ahead to build.
Resident Mikael Larsson believes that the construction will destroy the rural idyll.
"There will be high fences with camera surveillance where it was previously agricultural land," he says.
No municipal veto
Mikael Larsson compares this with the regulations regarding wind turbines. There, the municipality has a veto, as the wind turbines are considered to make significant interventions in the landscape and the local environment.
But there is no equivalent when it comes to solar cell parks, where the municipality can only give an opinion if the issue ends up in the Land and Environment Court.
We must have electricity for the green transition, must we not accept the construction of solar parks?
"Yes, definitely. But it doesn't have to be built on agricultural land," says Mikael Larsson.
Several residents in Gurseröd now hope that the county administrative board will appeal the decision of the Land and Environment Court.
The Company: Huge Potential
The company behind the application, Helios Nordic Energy, points out that agricultural land is not being destroyed, but that solar farms can increase the profitability of rural businesses.
"There is incredible potential in a short time to increase the profitability of agricultural companies," says project manager Linus Edström.