The council of Voorne aan Zee voted last week to approve the zoning plan for two new wind turbines on the Haringvlietdam. This will make it possible to replace the existing six wind turbines on the sea side by two new, larger wind turbines on the inner side of the dam.
The repowering/upscaling project Haringvlietdam is being developed by E-Connection, commissioned by Windpark Haringvliet BV, the owner of the existing Bonus 600 MK IV turbines with a total installed capacity of 3.6 MW. The plan is to replace these with 2 wind turbines with 5 to 6 MW capacity each.
The Haringvliet Dam is part of the Delta Works. The replacement of the existing turbines has a long history. After it appeared earlier that replacement on the sea side was no longer allowed due to water safety reasons, the inner side of the dam, the Haringvliet side, was considered. The plans for this were considerably delayed by the ruling of the Council of State (June 2021), which meant that the general standards for wind energy could no longer be applied throughout the Netherlands. Site-specific standards were subsequently drawn up, such as a noise standard of 45 dB in L-den and additional test points where a specific noise standard must be met. In December 2022, the draft zoning plan with these standards was published by the municipality of Hellevoetsluis (which was merged into the municipality of Voorne aan Zee on January 1, 2023).
Additional noise standard
With a motion, the municipal council did adopt additional, supplementary standards to the local standard noise standard of 45 db in L-den. The L-den is an annual average standard. Because, in the opinion of the city council, it can only be tested at the end of a year, a noise standard in LAeq was added, which can also be measured during the year. This, according to the council, creates better protection for local residents.
The motion asking the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to add the standard to the zoning plan was submitted by almost all council groups. All but one council member subsequently voted in favor of the zoning plan.
For Windpark Haringvliet BV, this is an important step towards replacing the existing turbines. Image: Visualization of new wind turbines from Quackstrand Source: E-Connection
