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During recent years green energy has been spoken about a lot, especially whether we have access to it or not and how we should solve the accessibility problem if so. One thing is for sure, whether we aim to rely on green energy or energy production through fossil fuels we are soon running low, at least according to the predictions. 

Sweden have had an increasing electricity production from wind energy during the last decade and it is not seeming to slow down. However, if one looks at the energy needed until the year of 2040 one can quite fast realize that the development of energy production facilities must speed up even more. On the other hand, we need to do it in a sustainable way, not compromising other national and public interests. To facilitate this, Energimyndigheten in cooperation with Naturvårdsverket have published a strategy called Nationell strategi för en hållbar vindkraft (National strategy for a sustainable wind power) in which they suggest further regionalization to be carried out by the county administrative board. 

Against this background, this analysis investigates the municipalites of Skellefteå, Lycksele and Robertsfors in the county of Västerbotten to find opposing interests to the establishment of windfarms. The analysis is carried out using Geographical information systems (GIS) in which second-hand data is being analyzed through an overlay analysis.  The results indicate that environmental values such as biodiversity etc. and national interests regarding reindeers and Sami are most common in all the municipalities. Also, all the municipalities are considered to have quite good conditions to meet the regional development needs of wind power in the county of Västerbotten. However, further examination of the conditions must be done to determine this. Many interests have a claim on the land use in all the municipalities.

This analysis is a first step to regionalize (municipality level) the national strategy and from my point of view a helpful basis for the municipalities to update their comprehensive plan regarding wind energy. This is necessary to get a sustainable development and to meet the regional development needs of wind energy in Västerbotten county.