De Haan against high-voltage cables under dunes and fields
Ventilus is to become a connection between the Stevin line in Bruges and the high-voltage substation in Avelgem. In West Flanders there is sharp protest against this line.
In order to find out where best to land the cables from the sea, drilling and soil investigations have been carried out in recent years. These resulted in 3 possible landing sites: Ostend, De Haan, and Zeebrugge. Wilfried Vandaele, mayor of De Haan and party leader of the N-VA in the Flemish Parliament, has already discussed the file repeatedly with the cabinet of Minister Demir.
“Only burdens and no pleasures”
Wilfried Vandaele: “The Haan-Vosseslag is one of the places where soil investigations and drilling were carried out to possibly bring the cables ashore. The cables would be laid under the dunes via an underbore and then run underground through the fields to the Brugse Baan (the Ostend-Bruges road). Since the cables on our territory would in any case run underground, there is no fear for public health, as there is in the municipalities where the cables run above ground. But for our municipality such a landfall offers no added value, on the contrary. All in all, it is about major works, which we as a municipality only have the burdens and no benefits of.”
“I urge the minister not to come ashore in De Haan-Vosseslag, but in Zeebrugge, for example. After all, there are already a lot of cables there for the existing Stevin line. Ostend was also asking to partially convert the energy there into hydrogen, but I understand from Elia that Ostend no longer qualifies as a landing site because it proves to be technically difficult,” says Vandaele.