Cycling along the country roads of
Flevoland, you can’t help but notice the wind. If one is lucky, it
is behind you, if it isn’t… well, good luck. It is no wonder that
windmills haphazardly dot the landscape. They fit. This is the
Netherlands, a country where wooden windmills have dotted the
landscape for hundreds of years. Now instead of pumping water, modern
windmills are powering thousands of homes.
Stephan de Clerck and his brother Ralph
live within a few kilometres of each other in Flevoland, and they are
no strangers to the wind. They have been harvesting wind energy for
10 years. In the beginning they were looking for ways to diversify
their farms and incomes. They love how wind energy perfectly
complements their other crops, like potatoes, onions or sugar beets.
Once installed, the windmills turn steadily in the background, while
the day-to-day life of a farmer continues. For them, wind energy is a
valuable crop, and one that gets better the stormier the weather.
Together, Stephan and Ralph produce
enough wind energy to power 5000 homes. Their energy is sold through
WindUnie, a co-operative that sources and sells wind power to
residents of the Netherlands. Ten years ago, WindUnie was a small
start-up, but through the engagement of landowners like Stephan and
Ralph, this co-operative has grown to be a major player in wind
energy market in the Netherlands. Connecting residential customers
with small scale producers, the WindUnie website intelligently allows
you to explore the suppliers of wind energy, meet their families and
see where your wind is coming from. In the case of Stephan and Ralph,
you find out that they have 3 and 4 kids respectively and love skiing
and walking on their holidays.
Stephan was very happy with the first
set of windmills, so much so that he wished to build more. But, by
then, the zoning laws had changed and regulations were now requiring
windmills to be built in a line rather then individually. Stephan
realized that he couldn’t do it on his own. So he went knocking on
his neighbours doors and together the 5 of them launched Samen voor
de Wind, (Together for the Wind), a co-operative farm of 7 windmills.
Samen voor de Wind has substantially
contributed to the financial well-being and health of the families.
All the members have young families and they are naturally happy to
have the extra income. Furthermore, the co-operative has built a
stronger community between the neighbours.
Stephan believes that for renewable
energy to succeed, we desperately need to level the subsidy playing
field. With the removal of fossil and nuclear fuel subsidies, the
market would take over and clean energy would rise to top.
“In the future, instead of all of us
being energy users, we will all become energy producers,” says
Stephan.
This blog post is part 4 of a series of
wind energy stories from photographer Robert van Waarden. Next week
meet Petr Pavek, an influential character in Czech Republic politics
who has retired to his organic farm to live life more simply.