April 16, 2012
Netherlands

New defence ministry wind farm rules will hit development

www.dutchnews.nl 16 April 2012

The defence ministry is poised to extend the protection zone around eight military radar installations from 28 kilometres to 75, because of problems caused by wind turbines, Trouw reports on Monday.

This means anyone wishing to install a turbine in most parts of the country will have to request official defence ministry permission, the paper says. The problems have become more acute because wind turbines are getting bigger, the paper says, without going into more detail.

The infrastructure and environment ministry is now assessing what the consequences will be for the Dutch wind power industry. The government’s target is for a doubling of wind energy production on the mainland by 2020.

For example, most of Drenthe will be covered by the special ruling – the province has plans to develop a wind farm consisting of 90 turbines. And Friesland wants to develop a wind farm close to the Afsluit dyke, which is within 75 kilometres of three radar stations.

The defence ministry plans to introduce the new restrictions on July 1 but this has now been put back, pending the ministerial review of the likely effects.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/04/16/new-defence-ministry-wind-farm-rules-will-hit-development/