Sveriges Radio is sounding the alarm that Sweden is allegedly the country where the spread of incorrect or misleading information about wind power is most widespread. As the basis for this claim, SR refers to a report produced by a wind power industry lobby organization, which claims that such disinformation is hindering the green transition. The report is based on a mapping exercise and concludes that this constitutes disinformation linked to Russian actors and alternative media. At the same time, SR omits the fact that it is a lobby organization, led by a former top Green Party politician, and no critics or residents affected by wind power expansion are given a chance to speak.
The message in the industry’s report Wind Energy Dis- and Misinformation Undermining Europe’s Security and Competitiveness is now being reflected in the reporting by the publicly funded broadcaster Sveriges Radio, which highlights the report’s conclusions and repeatedly states that the problem is particularly acute in Sweden.
The piece refers several times to major billion-krone investments in wind power being halted following local protests, which, according to the report, are often based on exaggerated or incorrect claims spread on the internet.
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In Sveriges Radio Ekot’s coverage, only representatives of the wind power industry are given space to describe the issues, by highlighting the report from the European lobby organization and by interviewing Nils Grunditz, CEO of Green Power Sweden, a similar industry body in Sweden.
He reinforces the line taken by his colleagues in the European lobby group WindEurope by warning that the so-called ‘disinformation’ that wind power is bad is causing anxiety and driving loud opposition to wind power projects.
– Disinformation is creating strong anxiety and strong resistance in very vocal groups in the local community who gain tools to put very high pressure on local politicians, who simply do not have the strength to resist, Grunditz tells SR.
According to Nils Grunditz, this in turn can affect the decisions of local politicians and ultimately the industry’s ability to make money. The problem is further exacerbated when mainstream media begin to imitate alternative media in their coverage of wind power, with more critical features.
– Our concern is that this affects our ability to expand renewable energy, that it keeps us dependent on fossil fuels, and it makes it harder to attract the industrial investments and growth Sweden needs, says Grunditz.
SR Sides with the Industry – Critics Not Heard
However, voices other than those of the wind power industry are missing. The lobby organization, whose mission is to promote continued expansion and which depends on investment in the sector, is largely allowed to put forward its damning view of critics without closer scrutiny from SR.
Critical perspectives from, for example, local residents who are affected, or from players – including alternative media – identified in the lobby organization’s report as spreaders of Russian disinformation and described as a hindrance to the green transition, are not given an opportunity to explain their criticism.
Neither alternative media nor residents near planned or existing wind farms are interviewed in this context. Nor does the radio reporter present examples of local objections — such as impacts on the local environment, property values, or wildlife — to counterbalance the descriptions of the lobbyists.
The European lobby organization argues that misleading information about wind power’s effects on health, environment, and the economy is coming from several quarters. In the report, they point to actors that they say are in an ‘echo chamber’ together. These include Kreml-linked groups, alternative media, politicians and fossil fuel companies – who are said to spread incorrect or exaggerated claims that destroy and slow down the green transition.
– The spread of misleading messages and inaccuracies is particularly extensive in Sweden. Some accounts endlessly pump out messages, says the state radio reporter in the Ekot segment, emphasizing that it leads to a “heated atmosphere.”
At the same time, public television consistently describes both WindEurope and Green Power Sweden as industry associations, without troubling to highlight that these are actors representing wind power industry’s interests and working for its expansion.
This raises questions as to whether the reporting sufficiently reflects different perspectives on the issue and thus serves the public’s information needs, or if it in practice more significantly repeats the wind power industry’s own arguments.
Against this background, it can also be questioned whether the segment lives up to Sveriges Radio’s obligation of accuracy and impartiality in reporting. At the same time, it is noted that the current leadership of the WindEurope lobby group has a political background within the green movement in Belgium, via its CEO, Tinne Van der Straeten.
She is a former Green Party politician and energy minister who pushed for wind power expansion – facts that are not mentioned in Sveriges Radio’s reporting, where the organization is instead presented as a neutral player in the conflict.
The Wind Power Sector Is Stalling
What is behind the wind power industry in recent years intensifying its campaigns towards politicians and the public, in what almost resembles scare tactics where criticism is linked to alleged Russian disinformation?
A closer review of Green Power Sweden’s report on the wind power situation in Sweden shows a clear slowdown. The expansion of wind power in the country has slowed significantly due to resistance throughout the country.
READ ALSO: Wind Power Is Stalling – Swedes to Be Bribed to Accept the Turbines
In 2025, 93 percent of land-based wind power projects (43 out of 46 projects) were stopped by municipalities. This means that a maximum of 13 out of 606 planned wind turbines will undergo environmental review to determine if they get a permit.
The proportion of wind power projects stopped is by far the highest since the lobby organization Green Power Sweden began mapping municipalities’ decisions. During 2021–2024, on average 68 percent of projects were vetoed by municipalities.
The municipal veto was the most common reason for rejections in 2025. Of the 18 applications decided that year, only three were approved. Of the 15 applications rejected or stopped, 12 were due to municipal veto, one was stopped by both municipal veto and the Armed Forces, one was stopped by the Armed Forces, and one was rejected by the environmental review board (MPD).
The lobby organization describes this as a worrying trend from already high levels. Wind power industry representatives warn that the low permitting rate risks causing a shortfall of new projects just as electricity demand is expected to increase with electrification.
In various press releases, they emphasize that Sweden, as a climate leader, risks failing to meet climate goals, secure jobs, or strengthen energy security if wind power expansion is not approved at a faster pace.
READ ALSO: REVEALED: Several Previous Environmental Issues Found at Collapsed Wind Turbine
– The government needs to get the promised incentives for wind power in place so that more municipalities say yes and contribute to electrification, says lobbyist Ina Müller Engelbrektson, who is legal counsel and permitting officer at Green Power Sweden.
Lobbying Country’s Politicians
A year ago, Samnytt published a longer article about how another lobby organization, Swedish Wind Energy, influenced the country’s politicians, including by organizing courses where the industry itself taught elected officials why wind power is seen as positive and how to handle criticism from residents who do not want the industry in their area.
In parallel with these courses for politicians, Sweden’s elected officials were inundated with emails where critics of wind power were labeled climate deniers and fact resistant, based on sweeping claims. Even then, criticism of wind power as unreliable or problematic was dismissed as Russian disinformation.
READ ALSO: Politicians Are Trained in Wind Power – Industry’s Own PR Agency Leads the Course
In other words, wind power industry lobbyists are trying to scare politicians by suggesting that critics in the municipalities may actually be part of a Russian influence campaign.
When Samnytt confronted the lobbyists last year, they tried to avoid answering — among other things, we were told one was in a meeting and the other only spoke to mainstream media.
The Russia Card to Dismiss Critics
A year later, we are seeing a new lobbying campaign in efforts to crush criticism and win more permits for wind turbines. But now it has gone to the European level, with the lobby group WindEurope organizing a conference in Madrid, April 21-23, where the report was presented as a weapon to crush opposition by smearing alternative media together with the Kremlin and other sweeping and unsubstantiated claims.
READ ALSO: “They Are Fooling the Swedish People” – Citizens Hit Back at Wind Industry’s Smearing of Criticism
Sweden is repeatedly mentioned in the report, as are citizen groups critical of the expansion. Alternative media are also mentioned and called “far right” as well as “low quality websites” according to the lobbyists – an area where, according to the report, Sweden has long played a leading role and where many actors have tracked the green transition as a news topic.
WindEurope has also mapped around 43,000 critical posts on various social media and claims that about 70 percent constitute “disinformation” about wind power. This assessment is made within the scope of the organization’s own review, while it represents an industry with an interest in continued expansion.
This relies on the organization’s own review—the same actor that also advocates for increased expansion of wind power. The report further shows that, in practice, the lobby group monitors and categorizes a large number of accounts, in some cases drawing links to the Kremlin based on content judged as possibly pro-Russian.
One person who does not share the wind power industry’s and Sveriges Radio’s view that criticism of wind power is disinformation is economist and associate professor Christian Sandström. He has become known as a critic of the green transition and has repeatedly scrutinized wind power in Sweden.
Sandström dismisses the allegation that wind power criticism is Russian disinformation and instead points to flaws in the reasoning with an ironic example.
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If critical information is automatically linked to Russian influence, it would then mean that even the Swedish Work Environment Authority—which reported that four plants were decontaminated for asbestos—must also be infiltrated by Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The wind power industry has for years made a habit of linking criticism to disinformation and foreign interference—to Russian influence in particular.
The WindEurope report draws links between wind power-critical groups such as Motvind and what it calls pro-Russian information environments. Their evidence is that content has appeared or been shared on certain sites where material that in other contexts could be interpreted as pro-Russian also appears.
At the same time, no concrete examples of coordination or direct influence are provided—the European lobby group even includes a clarification that it cannot be linked to more than that. The reasoning is based solely on the fact that various types of content occur in the same digital environments, which is then used as a basis for drawing its own conclusions about connections.
The focus on Russian influence and disinformation becomes particularly interesting given that U.S. president Donald Trump is one of the most high-profile wind power critics among world leaders. On several occasions, he has described wind power as “pathetic,” an expensive and inefficient energy source.
– Climate change is the biggest hoax ever foisted upon us, Trump said at the UN last year, continuing:
– The carbon footprint is a scam invented by people with bad intentions, and it leads to total destruction.
READ ALSO: Trump to Stop Wind Power: “The Only Ones Who Want Them Are Those Who Get Rich”
Trump has also said that wind power is the most expensive form of energy ever and only works through subsidies, while the wind power industry, according to him, makes large sums.
– It’s the most expensive energy ever. They only function if they get subsidies. The only people who want them are those who get rich from wind turbines through getting enormous grants from the American government, said Trump.
The fact that the wind power industry does not use Trump’s “American disinformation” line is probably because it is less effective at swaying opinion among politicians and citizens in Europe compared to better established phrases like “Russian disinformation,” which thus has a greater impact in the debate about wind power criticism.
Russian Disinformation Agents?
So who are the disinformation agents slowing the so-called green transition in Sweden?
Is it the couple Sven and Görel Willén, whose life’s work—building their house in rural Dalarna—was cut in half in value due to planned wind power projects in the area?
READ MORE: Threat from Wind Power Halved Sven and Görel’s House Value
Sveriges Radio chose not to let either Sven and Görel or other affected people around the country speak and share their perspective in its segment about the spread of supposed disinformation holding back wind power expansion in Sweden.
There was no ambition from SR Ekot to counterbalance the lobby organization’s statements that their testimonies constituted “disinformation” — instead, these claims were mainly repeated without further questioning.
– There is no damn joy left because of what these bastards are doing, Sven exclaimed, getting really angry with the wind power profiteers, as he said in a Samnytt interview last year, continuing:
– You want to put them against the wall and say: “Do you have any empathy at all, you little bastard? That you destroy things for countless people. Their everyday life is ruined!”
“You’re a Putin Supporter, Climate Denier – Maybe a Nazi Too”
Last year, Samnytt interviewed Lotta Holmén from Torslanda, a doctor of physical chemistry and active in the Motvind organization. This organization is mentioned 31 times in the wind power industry’s lobbying report, which Sveriges Radio has highlighted uncritically.
In the lobby organization’s report, Motvind is mainly discussed in reference to a group by that name in Norway. There, two Norwegian alternative media sites are identified as spreading what they call pro-Russian narratives and wind power criticism. At the same time, the same lobby group in the report states that there is no evidence for this, but they see some kind of echo chamber online.
This does not imply any formal cooperation, but highlights how Motvind’s messages circulate in broader information environments that are also used to spread Kremlin-friendly narratives.
WindEurope’s Russia connection
Last year, we asked Lotta Holmén of Motvind in Sweden how it feels to be called a climate denier when you are critical of the wind power industry.
– I’m not a climate denier. I can’t speak for everyone who opposes wind power, but wind power leads to higher CO2 emissions than, for example, nuclear power, so it’s a strange argument, she answered.
When we asked how Holmén felt about being labeled as part of a Russian influence operation in Sweden, she laughed.
– It’s the usual accusations. You’re a Putin supporter, or a climate denier. Maybe a Nazi, too. They obviously have no arguments, she said, continuing:
READ ALSO: Agency: Russian Propaganda That Wind Power Is Unreliable
– And why would Russia be interested in Sweden not building wind power? If anything, it’s the opposite, because then we become dependent on Russian gas. I’m sure they’ve influenced The Greens (Die Grünen) in Germany and made them dependent on Russian gas.
Wind power critic Lotta Holmén did not mince words when she criticized the industry as living only on taxpayers’ money.
– The entire wind power sector is a political project and is financed by taxpayers. There’s really nothing good about wind power. It’s not sustainable—economically, socially, or environmentally.
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“I’m Not Working for Putin – For Heaven’s Sake”
We also spoke with Stig Edfast, who is involved in the resistance against large-scale wind power development through the Network Against Wind Power Industries at Högsvedjan and Tjärdalsberget in Sundsvall municipality, about how he feels about being described as fact-resistant, a climate denier, and part of a Russian influence operation.
– No, I don’t work for Putin. For heaven’s sake. It’s about destroying large areas, and that we are committed to nature and outdoor life, he said.
READ ALSO: Ornithologists Demand: Start Dismantling Wind Power and Save Sweden’s Eagles
Wind power critic Peter Ronelöv Olsson, coastal fisherman and part-time politician in Blekinge, was also featured in Samnytt. As chairman of SFPO, Sweden’s Fishermen’s Producer Organisation, he has worked against planned large-scale offshore wind power projects in what he says are Sweden’s best fishing waters.
We asked how Ronelöv Olsson would comment on being described, in emails to local politicians, as fact-resistant, a climate denier, and part of a Russian influence operation.
– It’s a big damn lie, all of it. They’re fooling the entire Swedish people, was his response.
Green Party Member, Trans-Pride and Gaza Activist Behind the Report
The lobby group’s report also features leading wind power industry representatives, including the CEO of WindEurope, who is presented with name and photo. Samnytt can reveal that CEO Tinne van der Straeten has a political background in the Green Movement and was Belgium’s Energy Minister 2020–2025, before moving directly to one of Europe’s most influential wind power lobby groups.
– Disinformation and incorrect information about wind power is much more than a social media phenomenon. Across Europe, wind power projects worth billions of euros have been stopped or interrupted, often after protests and campaigns based on claims of disinformation and incorrect information, says CEO Tinne van der Straeten in the report and continues:
– The results are worrying. A slower transition to domestic renewable energy and higher electricity prices for European consumers.
At the same time, Sveriges Radio in its reporting has not explained what kind of organization WindEurope is, instead mainly repeating its objections to the opposition without providing a greater context.
The publicly funded broadcaster has, for example, not mentioned the CEO’s previous background as a Green Party politician. She was also Belgium’s former energy minister, where she actively promoted the green transition in a political role.
After leaving her cabinet post in Belgium, Tinne van der Straeten moved straight into the role of representative for the European lobby group WindEurope in the green billion-euro industry.
In the photos, she appears pleased with the development in which coastal landscapes are gradually being turned into large-scale wind power developments.
That Tinne van der Straeten went directly to the industry may not be so surprising—perhaps more of a reward—considering that, as minister, she pushed the green transition with a clear focus, including expanding offshore wind power.
Sveriges Radio Dodges Questions
Samnytt has unsuccessfully sought state reporter Beatrice Janzon at Ekot with questions about what concrete evidence exists to show that alternative media’s critical view of wind power constitutes “disinformation,” as well as how SR has reasoned about selection, balance, and source handling in the piece in light of the requirements for accuracy and impartiality.
We have also asked why critical voices from those affected by the wind power industry nationwide have not been allowed to speak, and how SR ensures that various perspectives and objections to statements made are given space in reporting in accordance with the requirements for accuracy and impartiality.
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Don’t Miss Our Wind Power Investigation
Did you know Samnytt has published a three-part investigation of wind power? It offers a different perspective and lets residents speak in a debate where criticism of wind power is often described as disinformation by mainstream media and the wind power industry.
It has become a real thorn in the side of the wind power sector, which is now increasingly desperate to smear us – at the same time that opposition to their projects continues and grows in many municipalities.