On Kvaløya, around 45 kilometres west of Tromsø, lie the Kvitfjell and Raudfjell wind parks, which operate under separate licences, but are run as a single unit, and following an acquisition in January 2025 are owned and operated by Tromsø Vind AS and Raudfjell Vind AS, both 100 per cent owned by Nord-Trøndelag Elektrisitetsverk (NTE).
These wind power plants are two of the largest wind power installations in Northern Norway, with 20 turbines located at Raudfjell and 47 at Kvitfjell. The 67 wind turbines, of the Siemens Gamesa SWT-DD-130 type, have a combined installed capacity of 288 MW and a combined annual production of around 750 GWh, but financially they have been a poor business. They have never operated at a profit.
From 2020/2021, the facilities were involved in an extensive legal dispute with the supplier. This triggered a sales process, but naturally no one showed any interest in purchasing the loss-making project, until NTE entered the picture in December 2024. NTE then paid a total of around NOK 3.5 billion for the whole undertaking, according to the company’s half-year report for 2025.
NTE paid a top price for a money pit that no one else wanted to buy
The price includes the wind power plant’s debt, of which NOK 1.85 billion is directly linked to the share acquisition. This increased NTE’s interest-bearing debt from a healthy NOK 1.25 billion at the end of 2024 to a frightening NOK 4.88 billion at the end of 2025. According to Finansavisen’s revelation, this has triggered “full-scale war” within the power company and sharp reactions among the 19 owner municipalities in Trøndelag.
According to Finansavisen, NTE Group Chief Executive Christian Stav has prioritised investment in wind power rather than distributing dividends to the municipal owners – and Norwegian municipalities need all the money they can get. Now both red figures and accusations of secrecy and poor governance are flying back and forth, and there is little to suggest that revenues will increase: the power from the parks is sold under a fixed-price agreement (PPA) to Alcoa Mosjøen until the 2030s – so when electricity prices rise, revenues remain unchanged.
A warning to all local politicians
Local politicians (who unfortunately rarely possess a deep understanding of business economics) are now demanding a full investigation of the acquisition process – but the only solution to this predicament is either to sell the money pit on to someone else or to make it blow much more, in order to increase revenues. The latter appears the easier option to achieve. This story alone ought to serve as a warning to all local politicians in Norwegian municipalities: “Stay well away from wind power, because what men in suits with PowerPoint presentations promise is never what you get.”
And as if that were not enough: Onshore wind power is the cheapest option if one insists on building wind power, yet the entire industry still struggles to turn a profit. Building wind power at sea is substantially more expensive both in terms of construction and operation, and floating offshore wind is so costly that it becomes ridiculous. Nevertheless, floating offshore wind is precisely what the Government is now investing in through Roadmap 2.0 Green Industrial Initiative (Veikart 2.0 Grønt Industriløft). It is completely deranged and disconnected from more than 40 years of numerical material and economic data.
The Storting has been turned into a sales department for wind power
Following the explosion in wind power development between 2016 and 2019, there emerged a massive popular opposition to wind turbines in Norwegian nature. Wind power is unable to deliver what the advertising promises, and the economic figures for Norway’s wind parks make dismal reading, despite economic preferential treatment and massive incentives. The majority in the Storting completely ignores all of this. Instead, the Storting continues to push wind power on Norwegian municipalities, and it does so on behalf of commercial wind power salesmen who continue to claim that this is sensible, right and important.
According to a press release from Motvind Norge, a majority in the Storting has united behind several new resolutions relating to onshore wind power. Although the proposal for a direct obligation on municipalities to conduct assessments will not secure a majority, the direction remains clear: stronger national pressure on municipalities and local politicians to secure further wind power development, preferably with even more financial inducements:
Not only did the Government itself lead the charge in defending Fosen Wind Power Plant against the Supreme Court. The Storting now wishes to investigate a scheme under which municipalities may receive advance payments of the production levy as early as the investment decision or the commencement of construction. This makes the Storting and the Government resemble a paid subsidiary department of Wind Power Ltd. This is entirely out of step with both public opinion, actual results, economic facts and the interests of Norwegians, and naturally causes speculation about corruption to flourish. Everything is in place for it.