Davvi Wind Farm Rejected in Northern Sápmi

 

Raggovidda Wind Farm, Berlevåg, Norway

Reuters reported on November 4, 2025 that Norway's energy regulator had rejected an application to build a wind farm in its northernmost county of Finnmark, citing impacts to a wilderness area as well as Indigenous Sámi culture.

The projected Davvi wind farm would have joined other wind farms in the northernmost region of Norway, such as Raggovidda, which has been operating since 2014 just south of the fishing port of  Berlevåg. The landscapes of the plateaus in the north offer little resistance and the winds blow all year round with astonishing force, making the wind farm of Raggovidda one of the most efficient in the world, producing almost twice as much energy as an average farm.

However, the large farms come with a cost for the fragile biodiversity of the high north. Along with the turbines themselves come an entire infrastructure of roads, power lines, and buildings in areas once used only for reindeer herding.

The projected Davvi wind farm had been contested ever since its proposal some five years ago by a coalition that has included reindeer herders, political activists, and environmentalists. The Saami Council has strongly protested the giant industrial windpower development project, noting that it "would require an area equal to 8 000 football fields or 63 square kilometres and over 100 kilometres or service road networks." This would have been in a area of great natural beauty near Laksefjordvidda, near the sacred Sámi mountain of Rásttigáisá in the Tana and Lebesby municipalities, south of the Barents Sea and not far from the Finnish border.

Rásttigáisá Mountain 

In their initial 2020 public response, the Saami Council also pointed out that:

"Little attention has been paid to the fact that the Davvi wind power plant is part of St1’s Power-to-X or hydrogen industrial plans in Kemi, Finland. St1 is planning to build a refinery which produces synthetic fuels from CO2 emissions of a pulp mill and windpower from the Davvi wind power plant. The project requires the building of new infrastructure, ie. a new powerline from Norway to Finland via the Sámi reindeer-herding cooperatives Galdoaivi ja Báišduottar. The powerline is included in the Lapland regional land use plan 2040."

I can't do better than quote at length from a statement produced in 2020 by the Friends of the Earth Norway, criticizing the application by the corporation Grenselandet AS:

"The planning area for Davvi wind power farm is in Laksefjordvidda, one of the largest areas without major interventions in Norway. This arctic nature is undisturbed by industry and buildings, and one can walk for days surrounded only by nature, a totally unique experience. There are very few such areas left in Norway. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in August that almost three-quarters of the world's ice-free land is affected by human activities, and the remaining proportion is shrinking rapidly. Such large intact nature areas are thus very valuable and important to preserve - both for the outdoor experience and for nature's intrinsic value. Building hundreds of wind turbines with associated roads and construction sites in an area the size of Stavanger will for the foreseeable future destroy the priceless nature of Laksefjordvidda.

"The area is very poorly mapped for biodiversity. However, we know that the Arctic is an important ecosystem. At first glance the area may seem like deserted stone rubble, but it is in fact the habitat for a number of species, several of them on the red list for threatened species. Here lives the rock ptarmigan, which is a bird species that Norway has an international responsibility to protect, and tiny beautiful flowers grow close to the ground. In the summer of 2016, a nesting of the critically endangered lesser white-fronted goose was discovered just over three miles from the plan area. Birds of prey such as ravens and snowy owls hunt for the lemmings and other small rodents. This area is an important route for Arctic foxes wandering between Varanger and Nord-Troms. To get a good overview of the diversity of species there is a need for thorough survey and field work, but we already know that the Arctic landscape is richer and more impressive than one might at first assume.

"In addition to the great natural and landscape values, the area is very important for the Sami indigenous people. The sacred mountain Rásttigáisá is located in the immediate vicinity of the planning area for the wind farm, and construction will be very negative for the reindeer resources. The rocky mountain peaks are also important for the reindeer, as a refuge from troublesome insects. Reindeer herding is already under severe pressure from a number of developments, and this burden will soon make it impossible for the next generation to continue the traditional way of life."