Martino van den Hurk and Corné van den Doelen are farmers in the flat Lithse polder between Den Bosch and Oss. In 2015 they were visited there by developers who wanted to build new windmills. People walked into the yard to talk about windmills.
Martino and Corné listened to their speech but did not sign. “We thought: we live here”, they say, now almost seven years later. “If something comes here, we’d better do it ourselves. If you put your scribble with a developer like that, you’ll have nothing more to say.”
Countless meetings
This is how the Oss – Den Bosch windmill collective was born. The farmers participated in numerous meetings. Their idea was included in the plan for De Duurzame Polder, where Oss and Den Bosch want to build their windmills. Last year, the government and Oss and Den Bosch signed an administrative agreement for the construction of an estimated 15 to 20 large wind turbines in the Lithse, Geffense, Nulandse and Rosmalense polders.
But the mills are not there yet. Corné, with a wink: “We are still not there yet. But we have learned to remain calm. If you force this, it will never work.”
The construction of windmills is a subject of much discussion in Brabant. Emotions often run high in the debates between supporters and opponents, and windmills are often discussed in election debates. The question is how much space local parties have to stop windmills. Every municipality must start generating sustainable energy; the national government and the province consider windmills important.
Dozens of windmills there
Brabant has almost 140 windmills, mainly in the windy west of the province. Dozens more should be added in the coming years. Along the A16, for example, where 28 windmills of almost two hundred meters high are planned for this year. Many windmills are also marked along the highways near Tilburg. And so in the Sustainable Polder, between Oss and Den Bosch.
Martino and Corné, along with many other farmers in their polder, are not the only windmill collective. Many people from Brabant want to generate their own electricity. One of the new windmills along the A16 is by the Traais Windmill Collective, the result of plans to make Terheijden energy neutral. Wind farm Spinderwind in Tilburg is owned by eleven collaborating energy collectives.
Sustainable Polder
In Oss, the debate in recent years has mainly focused on the Sustainable Polder, a plan by the municipalities of Oss and Den Bosch to build windmills in the polder of Martino and Corné.
The plan will be further elaborated in the coming years, but has already led to the birth of a new political party. For Dynamic Democratic Oss with party leader Frank Duijs, the resistance against the windmills is the most important theme. “Six thousand signatures have been collected here against the plan. That means that there is no support. We believe that Oss should hold a referendum on wind turbines.”
Duijs is not a climate denier. He also believes that less greenhouse gases should be used. “We agree that we have to get rid of it.” As an alternative to wind turbines, he proposes STEGs, turbines that are fueled by gas. “Natural gas is still regarded as environmentally friendly at the European Community.”
Wake up Emmen
Dynamic Democratic Oss has a predecessor in Drenthe. With a campaign against windmills, Wakker Emmen won fifteen seats in the council in 2014, the party previously had five. The windmills have been built after all, although they are lower than the planners had in mind. “If you still promise that those windmills will not come… you will never deliver,” party leader René van der Weiden told NOS in 2018. On the party’s site, windmills are no longer among the spearheads for the upcoming elections.
Corné and Martino still want to build windmills. “By doing it together, we share the burdens and benefits,” they say. “As farmers, we notice that climate change is real. We will soon need all kinds of ways to generate sustainable energy: wind turbines, solar parks and nuclear power stations. There is a fear of cold feet to continue. That is a shame.”