January 4, 2011
Netherlands

Eneco fails to overturn wind turbine plan rejection

DutchNews.nl, www.dutchnews.nl 3 January 2011

Eneco was correctly denied a licence to place 238 wind turbines in the North Sea although infrastructure minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen did not outline her case correctly, a court in Rotterdam said on Monday.

Eneco wanted to place 101 turbines some 40 km off the coast at Callantsoog and a further 137 close to Zuid-Holland. The minister turned down both applications.

The minister took the decision because of fears about the safety of local bird life and transport to oil rigs in the area.

The court agreed with Eneco that the risk to a colony of protected lesser black-backed gulls had not been correctly calculated.

However, the wind parks would have prevented low-flying helicopters moving safely between rigs, and that justified the rejection of the plan, the Volkskrant quoted the judges as saying.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/01/04/eneco-fails-to-overturn-wind-turbine-plan-rejection/