Energy efficiency is the big priority when developing solar and wind farms. Nature, multifunctionality and integration into the landscape are hardly taken into account. And that is diminishing support among local residents, warn Wageningen landscape experts and the Nature and Environment Federation.
It would be an awful pity if we in the Netherlands later came to regret the way we handled the transition.
Anyone who drives through the Netherlands regularly can see that the Dutch energy transition is gathering momentum. The number of wind and solar farms is growing rapidly, and will continue to do so in the years to come. This growth is necessary in order to be generating at least 35 terawatt-hours (TWh) of sustainable electricity on land by 2030, as pledged in the Climate Agreement.
The government has delegated the task of deciding where and how these 35 terawatt-hours about a third of the country's current annual electricity consumption should be generated in 30 energy regions. Each region has worked out its own regional energy strategy, RES for short. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) calculated at the end of last year that together, these strategies will suffice to meet the target in the Climate Agreement. But at the same time, PBL warned of the danger of stagnation - due not only to an overloaded electricity grid, but also to a potential lack of public and local government support.
