Action committee fights for the preservation of Hoogwoud’s landscape and is against solar park

LTO Noord – West Friesland department – is also stepping into the breach. Why are they against the arrival of this solar park? Hoogwouder Erik Mooij, speaking on behalf of the action committee, lists a few reasons. “Take the nitrogen problem as an example: farmers who have to leave or have to cut back on nature reserves. We don’t have that here, so we can continue to offer that food security.”

LTO chairman Trude Buysman shares this opinion: “You should not sacrifice good land. Food will be extremely important in the coming period. It must remain affordable, but also safe. There are still plenty of roofs that can accommodate solar panels. uses that cannot be produced because of the location. If there are no places, we can talk about using nature.”

Meadow birds also breed here and the area is located in a protected ribbon of bell jars. “They have also climbed into the pen”, says Mooij. “The plan is meeting a lot of resistance.”

He wants to add one more point of view. “Look, we are against unnecessarily sacrificing landscape because it can also be done differently. But then you have to come up with an alternative solution, since there is a task on the table. We also realize that,” emphasizes Mooij, pointing to the West-West. Frisian ambition to generate 0.7 terawatt hours (TWh) of renewable energy by 2023. It is not yet clear how much Opmeer contributes to this. “About 23 GWh”, Mooij reasons. “But that is not yet known. That still depends on the distribution key.”

Enough roof surface

Mooij mentions the use of roofs as an alternative. The roof surface is potentially large (500,000 m2) in Opmeer. A calculation that can be compared with the construction of 70 football fields. “The facts do not lie, there is enough roof surface. We have to actively focus on that,” he says. “Take Action’s distribution center in Zwaagdijk-East as an example. We also have many companies here.”

Last week Mooij, together with the other ‘activators’, had a conversation about this with Mayor Gerard van den Hengel and Alderman Herman ter Veen (Sustainability). “That was positive. We were invited to sit at the drawing board. That is a good step in the direction: we should try to help each other as much as possible and not stand against each other.”

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The outlying area, which lies to the west of Hoogwoud, has been designated as a search area (Westerboekelweg) in the Regional Energy Transition (RES) of Noord-Holland Noord. De Veken, where a new business park is being built, is also characterized as a search area. It is therefore not a bad idea that some commercial companies make use of that leeway.

Nevertheless, Mooij points to Opmeer’s ambitions and role. “The municipality cherishes its cultural-historical and landscape values. This is also described in the report of the RES and their Future Vision. They also want to stimulate solar panels on roofs. So let the municipality actively encourage that option and thus do not leave room for a solar park.”

ruler

Ter Veen explains: “We prefer solar panels on roofs, that’s true. But preliminary studies show that they can only generate 40 to 60 percent of our intended energy requirement. Then we are left with a part that we have to fill in, based on a choice of wind or sun. Windmills are not an issue, so there is only one choice left.”

The municipality therefore sets the condition that the landscape suffers as little damage as possible. Because according to Ter Veen, this does not mean that valuable land is ‘lost’ at the same time. “For example, by surrounding the solar park with greenery, integrating double land use such as water storage and crop cultivation or strengthening biodiversity with nature.”

The plan is also far from being cast in concrete. Ter Veen: “We cannot yet issue a permit. To do this, we first have to draw up an environmental vision together with our residents. That will only happen at the end of 2023. It contains our conditions, with which we can measure whether initiatives can be granted a permit. But those interests between climate or landscape must be weighed up. We have a task to fulfill. In 2025 everything must be licensed and in 2030 we must be able to generate renewable energy.”