Sweden generates 99% of electricity from clean sources. So why is wind power under attack?
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Thousands of anti-wind social media posts have been analysed, as researchers warn that Europe’s energy security could be threatened.
Sweden has been hit the hardest by a coordinated attack on wind power, according to a new analysis.
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Last year, Sweden generated a staggering 99 per cent of its electricity from low-carbon sources, the highest of any EU country.
This was spearheaded by hydropower (40 per cent) followed by nuclear (27 per cent), wind (23 per cent) and solar (two percent). According to energy think tank Ember, Sweden only relied on fossil fuels for 1.2 per cent of its electricity in 2025, pushing emissions per capita well below the EU average.
Despite its impressively green energy mix, an online investigation warns that mis- and disinformation about wind power has become rife in the country – posing a “systemic risk to Europe’s security”.
Sweden’s anti-wind power movement
WindEurope, who call themselves “the voice of the wind energy industry”, partnered with CASM Technology to map Europe’s anti-wind energy system for the first time. The study analysed more than 42,000 social media posts across Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, TikTok and LinkedIn – from 1 May 2024 to 28 February 2026.
These posts generated 6.3 million ‘active engagements’, such as likes and shares, as well as tens of millions of views. More than half (68 per cent) of the posts sampled were classified into dis- and misinformation-related anti-wind narratives, with the remaining classified as non-disinformation oppositional content.
There is a significant difference between misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is false or out-of-context information that someone is presenting as fact. Disinformation, on the other hand, is intentionally false and meant to deceive its audience.
The largest share of dis- and misinformation posts were written in Sweden (almost 7,000), followed by France, Norway, Finland, the United Kingdom and Germany. Together, these six nations accounted for 75 per cent of the data set.
“However, the countries producing the most anti-wind content are not always the ones attracting the most reaction,” the study states.
“Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Italy, Greece and the Czech Republic produced less anti-wind content in the overall network, but the content they did produce tended to attract more engagement.”
The UK actually had the most engagement in its anti-wind posts, followed by Germany, Norway, and France. Sweden ranked seventh, with more than 419,000 active engagements.
The report states these kinds of posts have created a “vast ecosystem across Europe” made up of actors from the media, politics, as well as civil society groups and individual activists.
The attack on wind power
The study arranged dis- and misinformation narratives around wind into four categories.
‘Fraud and anti-democratic narratives’ were the most common, which portray developers and supporters of wind projects as “greedy actors willing to accept major environmental and social harm in pursuit of profit" as well as “an imposition by distant political or economic elites on unwilling local populations”.
‘Environmental destruction narratives’ were also identified, which aim to portray wind turbines as harmful to nature and wildlife, creating the “misleading impression that wind energy has a profound net negative impact on ecosystems”.
While the construction of wind farms can often face objections based on environmental grounds, most experts agree that the environmental benefits of reducing fossil fuels outweighs any potential disturbance to wildlife.
Critics often argue that wind turbines endanger birds, but a recent study analysed more than four million bird movements with the help of radar and AI-based cameras over a year and a half. It found that more than 99.8 per cent of migratory birds reliably avoided the wind turbines.
RelatedLastly, ‘technological unviability and economic failure narratives’ made up more than 8,000 posts. These posts depict wind turbines as “destabilising”, make false links to power blackouts, and frame wind projects as “economically nonsensical”.
Earlier this year, ENTSO-E, Europe’s Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, published its final report on the large-scale blackout that left parts of Spain and Portugal without electricity on 28 April last year. Despite claims that this was caused by renewable energy, the report found that wind turbines were not among the root causes.
Despite these claims having been debunked, dis- and misinformation is having an impact on real-life perceptions.
“A majority of Germans, Belgians, Dutch, French and Swiss now believe that transitioning to renewables will raise household power prices, despite the International Energy Agency (IEA) confirming the opposite,” the report states.
“In France, Poland, Belgium and Switzerland, roughly half or more believe that electric cars (EVs) are just as bad for the planet as petrol or gas-powered cars, despite a strong academic consensus that EVs have a significantly lower environmental impact than petrol or diesel cars.”
According to a European Union social media survey, more than 80 per cent of EU citizens believe they have been exposed to disinformation or fake news in the past week, and around 50 per cent say they find it difficult to differentiate between reliable information and disinformation about climate change on social media.
What are the consequences of disinformation?
The study argues that dis- and misinformation pose a major threat to democracy and public discourse, which can be weaponised by the EU’s rivals to “attack the business model of European companies”.
Amid the war on Iran, the authors warn that delaying Europe’s transition to home-grown, competitive renewables not only impacts Europe’s businesses, but also casts a shadow on Europe’s economic competitiveness and wider energy security.
Policymakers may capitalise on these anti-wind sentiments for electoral gain, which has historically led to renewables projects being postponed or even blocked. In the US, Donald Trump has been implementing measures to stop offshore wind, arguing it is a national security risk.
“The Bulgarian municipality of Vetrino became the first in Europe to impose a blanket moratorium on wind energy, effectively blocking the development of the 500 MW Dobrotich onshore wind project, valued at approximately €1.2bn,” the report explains.
“Opposition to the project was driven by demonstrably false claims, including assertions that wind turbines cause cancer, plague or agricultural collapse. Organised networks on Telegram played a central role in spreading these narratives and mobilising opposition.”
On the more extreme end, authors warn that wind energy dis- and misinformation can even lead to violent attacks on wind energy projects.
“Radical dis- and misinformation narratives that portray wind and solar projects as illegitimate, corrupt or existential threats can contribute to an escalation from political and legal opposition to physical violence against renewable energy infrastructure and workers,” the report reads.
“Once such narratives take hold, sabotage and intimidation are increasingly framed as justified forms of resistance rather than criminal acts.”
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