The main objective of this paper is to analyze the role of policy support schemes and planning systems for inducing offshore wind power development in Sweden. Specifically, it highlights the different types of economic, political and planning-related conditions that face offshore wind power investors in Sweden, and provides brief comparisons to the corresponding investment conditions in Denmark. Norway and the UK. The analysis shows that in Sweden existing policy incentives are generally too weak to promote a significant development of offshore wind power, and the paper provides a discussion about a number of political and economic aspects on the choice between different support schemes for offshore wind in the country. Swedish permitting and planning procedures, though, appear favorable to such a development, not the least in comparison to the corresponding processes in the other major offshore wind countries in Europe (e.g., the UK). On a general level the paper illustrates that the success and failure stories of national offshore wind policies and institutions cannot be easily transferred across country borders, and the analysis shows that both the political and the legal frameworks governing the investment situation for offshore wind farms in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK differ significantly. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.