The minister wants power cables under Schiermonnikoog – to the horror of islanders and nature lovers. ‘This disrupts nature’

Forester Cynthia Borras looks at the unspoilt beach of Schiermonnikoog on one side, to the Willemsduin on the other – and shakes her head. “If they go to work here, I will not look. I don’t want to see that.”

On this part of the island, removed from the village and the busy beaches, nature has free rein. There are no walking or cycling paths. In the winter, the salt marsh, a overgrown piece of land located directly on the coast, full of seawater. In the spring, protected wading birds such as spoonbills and cropping breeds and in the fall, birds come on trek on this. In the dunes, endangered plant species grow such as the blue seastyst and sea wolf’s milk. Borras, forest ranger of Natuurmonumenten and islander, also does not often visit this part. She prefers to leave nature alone. So that it is precisely that power cables have to be laid at this location, she finds incomprehensible.

Outgoing minister Sophie Hermans (Climate, VVD) announced last month in a letter to Parliament that she wants to have cables laid to bring the energy of wind turbines in the North Sea to the Eemshaven in Groningen. Preparations have been taking for years. The wind farm, called Doordewind, must rise between 77 and 102 kilometers from the coast, north of Ameland and on the border of the German part of the North Sea.

Risks

Getting wind energy at sea is needed to achieve the climate goals, Hermans writes in the letter. Former minister of climate Rob Jetten (D66) wanted in 2022 that the North Sea would have 21 gigawatts of wind farms before 2030. And 50 Gigawatt in 2040. The latter will not work, Minister Hermans said last month.

2032 is the goal year for commissioning Doordewind. The manager of the High Voltage Net Tennet lays the cables between the wind area and the Eemshaven. Commercial parties can sign up for the tender from 2027, but building a wind farm has major financial risks. For example, the Danish energy company Ørsted stopped in May with the development of a wind farm at sea in the United Kingdom.

Our island and the vulnerable Wadden Sea with its beautiful nature deserve better than this route

The cables that run from the park to Eemshaven pass through the North Sea under Schiermonnikoog and reach the Eemshaven via the Wadden Sea and the Groningen coast. According to Minister Hermans, it is “the fastest and most reliable route.”

At the end of the summer, TenneT conducts further research at sea and on the Wadden Island. It is intended that the construction of the cables will start at the end of 2028. To this end, machines must go through the unspoilt nature reserve. There is also drilling.

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Seawave milk

Forester Borras runs from the beach to Cape Willemsduin – the vantage point on the eastern part of the island – right through the salt marsh. Along the way she picks up washed up waste. A hare jumps by. She comes across carcasses of young seagulls, who did not survive their first summer. They remain lying on this part of the island. It is now one of the few places in the Netherlands where nature is in charge, says Borras. “Pure nature. As a manager we are not active here either. What happens happens.”

She points to plants that are rare in many places, but do grow on Schiermonnikoog. “In the Netherlands, sea wolf’s milk is on the Red List of endangered plant species. What we have on Schiermonnikoog is a rare ecosystem that has become rare throughout Europe, because the coast is filled everywhere with boulevards and resorts. As a result, you have plants and animals that you don’t see anywhere else.”

If you disrupt the peace of these migratory birds, you will have lost them in the next ten years

Borras points from the beach to the dunes and the salt marsh on the other side, where purple lamb earrings bloom. “This is a protected quiet area. Here you only hear the sea, the wind and the helmet grass. It is a National Park, a Natura 2000 area, the Wadden Sea is UNESCO World Heritage. And here must come a working area with bores to shoot cables under the island? You can no longer take those protective titles seriously.”

Borras has more questions. “In the breeding season, from April 15 to July 15, the salt marsh is closed. Then they are not allowed to lay cables here. But in the fall the edges of the Wad are also full, with migratory birds that rest before they fly to Africa. If you disrupt their peace, they will look for a different place. Then you will lose them in the next ten years.”

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Machines

According to Minister Hermans, “worked on solutions to further develop this route with respect for nature”. For example, the cables are laid out with a Wadtrencher, “a vehicle on rubber bands with minimal pressure on the surface”, and the aim is to “guarantee the stability of the island and at least affect nature.”

It doesn’t reassure Borras. “How much noise those drillings make? Large machines have to go over the beach, through the dunes and the salt marsh. That disrupts nature.”

Islanders are also concerned. They have united in the Group Free Horizon Schiermonnikoog. At the Veerhaven and in a meadow near the village they placed a banner: “No cable under Schiermonnikoog”-with a QR code for a petition, which has been signed more than 25,000 times.

In her letter, Hermans writes that “not all worries in the region about the chosen routes can be removed”. But the government makes this choice because of the “importance of the energy transition”.

On the beach on the east side, where the cables should be, it is clear that the worries were indeed not removed. Vrije Horizon Schiermonnikoog has answered Hermans’ decision with a quiet protest: a hundred black flags flutter in a line, from the sea to the dunes.

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