Biggest Dutch wind farm to generate green power for 785,000 homes

The newest and so far largest Dutch wind farm opened some 85 kilometers off the coast of Groningen on Monday afternoon. Gemini consists of 150 wind mills, over two fields each covering an area of 34 square kilometers. The mills are able to generate enough clean energy to power 785 thousand households, NOS reports.

Construction of this wind farm started in 2015. It cost a total of about 28 billion euros. According to contractors Siemens and Van Oord, the Gemini Park reduces Dutch CO2 emissions by 1.25 million tons per year.

The new wind farm brings the Netherlands one step closer to reaching its Climate Agreement goal of using 14 percent renewable energy by 2020. The Netherlands already has three other wind farms on the North Sea, but these are much smaller. Together they generate nearly 360 megawatts of energy, while Gemini itself generates 600 megawatts. 

In the coming years the Netherlands will build another five major wind farms. The first of which will be built 22 kilometers from the Zeeland coast. The intention is that this wind farm, which will be able to generate 700 megawatts of green energy, will be ready by 2020.