The Noordenveld city council has not yet issued a ‘declaration of no objections’ for the solar park in Zuidvelde tonight. The item was removed from the agenda at the last minute.
A solar park with a size of 74 hectares is to be built between Zuidvelde and Peest. A ‘nature edge’ of about 35 hectares will be built around it. The plans were presented in the spring of 2020. Decision-making on this has now been postponed.
The reason for this is an investigation into possible conflicts of interest. Several members of the duo faction PvdA/GroenLinks and at least one member of D66 Noordenveld are involved in Energy Cooperative Noordseveld (ECN).
The energy cooperative will arrange ‘local ownership’ for two of the three developers of the Zuidvelde solar park. This means that they ensure that the surrounding area also benefits from the solar park.
Because the energy cooperative is an interested party and several council members are members of the cooperative or receive electricity through the cooperative, a test must first be carried out to rule out partiality.
Bertus Jan Epema (PvdA/GroenLinks) is one of the council members who is also a member of ECN. “In the context of practice what you preach am I a member. I think that ECN does a good job in helping Noordenvelders with the energy transition, so I am also a member myself.”
However, that membership can now become a problem. “ECN’s statutes state that members are allowed to make decisions about what should happen with the cooperative’s money if they have a positive balance at the end of the year,” explains Epema. “That could mean that we as members choose to lower the price of energy. As a member you then have a financial advantage and that can be explained as a conflict of interest.”
To counter this appearance of conflicts of interest, Epema and fellow council member Frederik van Lookeren Campagne (D66) have publicly terminated their relations with ECN. Epema regrets that decision-making is now being delayed. “But no one has realized this. Fortunately, we are still relatively on time. If it later turns out that there is a conflict of interest, it would have greater consequences.”
Bart Janssen, one of the owners of initiator Ankehaar Solar, thinks it is good that the municipality of Noordenveld will now investigate this first. “We are now waiting for the municipality to update us. This is new to us, but we are confident that it will work out.”
