The two island municipalities Hvaler in Norway and Orust in Sweden have the same goal to become carbon neutral. In order to reach it, they have joined in the “InterReg” project ESBØ (Et Smart og Bæredygtigt Øysamfund) where they initiate a variety of pilot installations to test climate-smart solutions within solar, wind, water, in the harbor and planning. A focus area in the project is the energy system where the goal is to increase the share of renewable energy on land and at sea as well as decrease energy consumption.

On Hvaler, one of the goals is to explore a model for how citizens, associations, businesses and the municipality can own a windmill facility together. Another goal for the two island societies is to find good models for promoting the use of solar energy.  

The project is a collaboration between the Norwegian municipality of Hvaler and the Swedish municipality of Orust. It runs from September 2017 to August 2020. The project has a total budget of 1,393,565 € and has received funding from the EU “InterReg” fund on 452,908 €.

Keywords: wind energy, solar, water, InterReg, multi-actor collaboration, Hvaler, Norway, Orust, Sweden