The North Holland Regional Council met this afternoon at the request of a referendum submitted by the Windalarm Working Group. The group wants county residents to have a say in a decision that wants to reduce the “distance standard” from wind turbines to homes and nature reserves. “We as residents want to make sure that health is guaranteed,” says Joost de Groot of Windalarm.
Windmills within 600 meters From where you live: This is not allowed yet, but if it is up to the county council, it will be possible later. According to the district, this is necessary to speed up the transmission of energy. In addition, Noord-Holland currently has additional rules regarding windmills policy in addition to the national rules, Anouk Gielen of GroenLinks told NH Nieuws. “Like the 600m rule, for example. We want to scrap these extra rules, so that Nord Holland can also take responsibility for the energy transition.” But not everyone is happy with that.
Criticisms from medical practitioners
“We want to appeal to the government to take the health of the local population seriously and to wait for this measure to be implemented until there is more clarity about the consequences of living next to wind turbines,” explains de Groot on behalf of Windalarm. “Physicians are also critical of this decision, recommending further research because no strong conclusions can be drawn yet.”
According to de Groot, things go wrong there, the government claims that living near windmills has not been proven to be harmful, while residents again claim that it has not been shown to be harmful. “The only studies that have been done so far have been done by engineering companies, which often also have interests in these types of wind farms.”
“Different groups of northern Dutch residents oppose the arrival of windmills for various reasons. One is afraid that birds will fly so that they will die against the windmills, and the other does not want windmills near the house for health reasons or noise pollution,” explains Joyce Fastinho, member of the Alliance for Democracy …the forum supports the Windalarm working group, in part because they don’t want to generate wind on Earth anyway.
The coalition party GroenLinks wants to generate green energy in this way and also sees contradictions in the opposition parties’ arguments. “Many parties want very strict rules in wind turbines against nuisance, but at the same time they are voting to expand highways,” Jilin notes. “We really want more windmills, but in places where it’s safe and with less disturbance.”
political unwillingness
A year ago, an attempt was also made to organize a referendum using the distance criterion, but this request was rejected lower his voice† According to the coalition parties in the Provincial Council, the decision was of “urgent importance” for the governorate, and therefore he wanted to continue with the plans. They couldn’t wait any longer. “We’ve set targets in the climate agreement and it’s important that we stick to them and continue to do so,” D66’s Amelie Strines told NH Nieuws at the time.
According to Vastancho, this is nonsense, because nothing concrete has yet been implemented, and according to her, there will even be political unwillingness. Gillen van Groenlinks disagrees. “We’ve already taken a lot of steps,” she explains. “We’re working harder than ever on energy conversion, but this is just a very long process.”
