Who decides where they go and how much do they yield? What you need to know about wind turbines

What conditions must a wind turbine meet?

If a wind turbine is placed near a residential area, a number of rules apply. Firstly, a wind turbine should not make more than 47 decibels of noise. At night, the wind turbine may produce a maximum of 41 decibels of noise.

At the beginning of this year, the province of Noord-Holland proposed to let go of the rule that wind turbines may not be built within a radius of 600 meters. The RES1.0 (Regional Energy Strategy, ed.) states that the standard of 600 meters will be replaced by a guideline of 350 meters. In practice, according to the RES, the distance will mainly be determined by the noise rules. Because MPs Erkens (VVD) and Leijten (SP) submitted a motion last year to investigate the effects of the distance standards, the province of Noord-Holland wants to wait for the decision of the State Secretary before the 600 meter standard is completely released. left.

In front of Zwaagdijk an exception was made last year: wind turbines were built there 500 meters from the village.

The tallest wind turbine in the Netherlands is located on the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam and is 260 meters high. That is almost as high as the Eiffel Tower. In North Holland the turbines are somewhat smaller. In Noord-Holland Zuid, a height restriction of a maximum of 120 meters applies in most places, due to the approach routes to Schiphol. Only in the northeast of IJburg does this restriction not apply. The tallest wind turbines in North Holland are therefore in the north: in the municipality Dutch Crown† In this municipality, 84.6 percent of the homes are located within a radius of 2.5 kilometers around a wind turbine.

Who decides where the wind turbines will be installed?

Edward Stigter, who is involved on behalf of the province of Noord-Holland in the development of the draft version of the Regional Energy Strategy and the RES 1.0, explains that an attempt has been made to organize the energy transition from the bottom up. “We have seen that the arrival of wind turbines in the Wieringermeer has generated a lot of resistance. It was not good that the government had decided from above to install them. We have therefore decided to approach it differently this time.”

In order to determine in which areas wind turbines can be placed, ‘hundreds of discussions’ have been organized. The province has spoken with all kinds of parties involved: municipalities, nature organizations, residents and water boards. In all, 3,000 people were involved in North Holland. A draft version has emerged from these discussions. Based on this, new discussions were held and adjustments were made, which led to the RES1.0. This does not yet contain concrete proposals for the installation of wind turbines, but proposals for potentially suitable search areas.

“Because the municipalities are closest to the residents, they are in charge of conducting conversations with the residents,” says Stigter. Ultimately, however, the decision to build a wind turbine does not always rest with the municipality. “When it comes to a wind turbine with more power than average, the decision is up to the province.”

How much does a wind turbine actually yield?

Wind turbines come in all shapes and sizes. The amount of energy they can generate also depends not only on the height, but also on the location of the wind turbine. on this map you can see where the most wind blows in North Holland. The tallest wind turbines, those in Hollands Kroon, also provide the most power each; 4200 kW.

An average wind turbine has a capacity of approximately 3 MW and produces approximately 6.6 million KWh of electricity per year. Electricity can therefore be generated for approximately 2,000 households with one turbine.

Wind, unlike sun, is not scarce in the Netherlands. For example, 12 hectares of solar panels are needed to absorb the yield of one modern wind turbine. The wind turbine has to run for about 6 months before the energy used in production can be recovered.

The energy generated by wind turbines is not only used for households, the data centers in North Holland also consume a lot of energy. The data centers in Agriport, attractive for companies due to their favorable location and large scale, had a power demand of 111 MW in 2020. It is expected to increase to 890 MW by 2030.

Why do the wind turbines cause a decrease in the value of surrounding houses?

Research by TNO shows that the values ​​of houses located within a radius of 2.5 km around a wind turbine decrease in value by 3.8 percent on average. So people don’t seem to like living next to a wind turbine. RIVM concludes in a research that local residents mainly suffer from the buzzing noise. Some indicate that they can no longer sleep with the window open and that it makes them very restless.

The research also shows that people suffer from cast shadows. Drop shadow is created when the sun is low and shines on the wind turbine. In order to reduce nuisance, the rule applies that a facade with windows may not receive cast shadow more than 17 days a year and no more than 20 minutes a day.

In addition, local residents often feel that wind turbines do not fit in with the landscape and there is talk of landscape pollution†