Wind turbines to take over old Soviet combat sites in Hanko Peninsula

National Board of Antiquities mapped old wartime fortifications

print this

The Hanko Peninsula, on which the City of Hanko is located, has a long history of battles dating back to the 18th century.
      The trenches and other remnants of past conflicts can still be spotted on the terrain of the peninsula. Moreover, the fortifications remaining in the area date back to the 1940s when the Hanko Peninsula was leased to the Soviet Union as a naval base.
     
In the Moscow Peace Treaty that ended the Winter War between Finland and the USSR on March 6th, 1940, the coastal city of Hanko was leased to the Soviet Union as a military base for a period of 30 years. A total of 28,000 soldiers were deployed to fortify the base.
      After months of sporadic and sometimes heavy fighting - the Finns and Russians clashed particularly on the surrounding islands, but there was no major push ordered to drive the Russians out of their base - in the Continuation War (of 1941-44), in December 1941 the Soviet Union suddenly retreated trom Hanko; it took Finns a short while before they noticed that the gunfire had ceased, and then they re-occupied the town.
     
Today, the sounds of firearms can also be heard clearly.
      However, what you can hear today is coming from Syndalen, a shooting range of the Finnish Defence Forces in Hanko.
      The loudest blasts can cause pressure waves in the eardrums.
     
The National Board of Antiquities has mapped the fortifications this spring, as a project to build a wind power farm in the area is to be launched soon.
      For John Lagerstedt, a researcher at the National Board of Antiquities, this is the first time when he is wandering in Hanko’s Koverhar during working hours.
      Lagerstedt mapped the area for two weeks in April-May as WPD Finland Oy, a subsidiary of the London-based WPD (UK) Wind Power Ltd, is to launch a wind power project in Koverhar, 10 kilometres from the centre of Hanko.
     
According to the plan, a total of five or six wind power generators with a capacity of 2.3 to 3.6 megawatts each are to be installed on concrete slabs. In addition, there will be underground cables, internal roads, as well as an overhead cable to connect the generators to the grid.
      The estimated annual output of the new wind power park will be around 30 to 40 gigawatt hours. The amount is equivalent to some 10 per cent of the overall consumption of electricity in the city of Hanko.
      The construction and installation work on the new wind park is scheduled to be completed in 2011.
      Based on preliminary estimates, the construction of the wind park is not likely to damage the valuable military history sites, provided that they are treated with caution.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Country´s largest windmill under construction in Oulu (19.11.2004)
  High electricity price improves profitability of wind power (26.8.2003)

Links:
  WPD
  National Board of Antiquities
  Hanko (Wikipedia)

Helsingin Sanomat