The Ministry of Social Affairs is organizing a meeting for municipalities to discuss how they can tackle polarization on sensitive topics like blackface Sinterklaas character Zwarte Piet and the construction of wind farms in the transition to green energy. At the meeting on Wednesday, municipalities can exchange experiences and tactics on how they deal with tensions between different groups, a spokesperson for the Ministry said to RTL Nieuws.
wind farm
Jul 2 '19 15:10
Jun 12 '19 14:40
The city of Amsterdam received the go-ahead to substantially increase the amount of wind energy generated in the municipality. The Dutch capital announced plans on Wednesday to add windmills generating an additional 50 megawatts of power by 2026.
Mar 27 '19 15:50
Entrepreneur Ben Timmermans of company Avitec infra & milieu is withdrawing from Drenthe wind farm project De Monden due to a threatening letter he received. Groningen Provincial Deputy Fleur Gräper-van Koolwijk (D66) also received a threatening letter regarding a wind farm project in the province. The police are investigating, Dagblad van het Noorden reports.
Feb 18 '19 11:00
Asbestos was dumped at a construction site at Delfzijl station for two consecutive days. A specialized company was called in to clean up the first batch of the carcinogenic substance on Friday. This same company is also cleaning up the second batch, found on Saturday, RTV Noord reports.
On Friday a pamphlet was attached to the fence of the construction site. It read: "This pollution, asbestos, was blown here by the contractor Hoonstra. Wind-concentration camp builder in Drenthe. Those who hire this company, will harvest asbestos."
Jul 11 '18 09:42
Former Environment Minister Ed Nijpels presented the Netherlands' Climate Agreement to Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate on Tuesday. This concerns the agreement in broad terms, with some concrete goals set and agreements made. The rest will be worked out and finalized later this year. The aim is to implement the Climate Agreement in 2019, NOS and NU.nl report.
May 21 '18 14:40
A large swastika and a German flag were found spray painted on a windmill next to the A6 highway, between Emmeloord and Lelystad, on Sunday morning. The authorities believe the vandalism happened very recently, though who the perpetrators are is unclear, De Stentor reports.
A police spokesperson told the newspaper that they are investigating the case and have informed the owner of the windmill, energy company Innogy. "We certainly take this seriously."
Apr 20 '18 16:30
Flags with swastikas on them were planted in the grass of a pasture in the Groningen village of Zuidbroek. As a wind farm is planned in this location, RTV Noord concludes that this is a protest against the wind farm.
The flags read Bezet gebied, Dutch for occupied territory, and Sperrgebiet, a term used by the Nazis during the German occupation to indicate prohibited territory.
Nov 2 '17 12:10
Dutch energy company Nuon signed a "mega agreement" with Microsoft on supplying wind energy to the American software giant. Nuon is building a wind farm in Wieringermeerpolder to supply the nearby Microsoft data center with power, ANP reports.
The wind farm will initially include more than 80 windmills, which will exclusively be used by Microsoft. Nuon is spending around 200 million euros on the construction of the wind farm. How much the Dutch company will make out of this deal, was not revealed. "At Microsoft's request, we make no statements about that."
Aug 15 '17 09:40
As of January 1st next year, all airports in the Schiphol Group will run entirely on sustainable energy generated in the Netherlands. The airport company signed a long-term agreement to this effect with electricity provider Eneco, ANP reports.
The Schiphol group covers the airports Schiphol, Eindhoven, Rotterdam and Lelystad. Together the airports use about 200 gigawatt hours of power every year. That's comparable to the consumption of 60 thousand households.
May 9 '17 09:24
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.
May 13 '16 14:15
Oil and gas company Shell placed a bid for a contract to build two massive offshore wind farms in the North Sea. Shell placed the bid in a consortium with energy company Eneco and dredging company Van Oord
May 3 '16 13:05
The Dutch institute for radio astronomy Astron is threatening a 100 million euro damage claim against a group of farmers planning to build windmills in Veenkolonien, Drenthe. According to Astron, the windmills will be "disastrous" for their research into the origins of the universe
Nov 19 '14 11:56
Google has made an agreement with Eneco for the supply of green electricity. The internet giant will use the power from a new wind farm to feed its data center, which is still under construction, in Eemshaven.
Oct 19 '13 01:40
The round-up of some of this week’s most noteworthy events and news stories features: the string of incidents at the end of the Netherlands-Russia year-of-friendship, a missing Amersfoort Labour councilor, the impact of heavy rainfall with millions in damages in its wake and Greenpeace' tireless effort to free their crew from a Murmansk prison.
Oct 18 '13 14:03
Vestas recently announced that it will supply 43 offshore turbines for a wind project on off the coast of the Netherlands. The wind facility will generate green electricity for 150,000 households.
Aug 27 '13 04:26
Huisman Schiedam is going to build the largest crane in the world, for the new offshore wind farm installation vessel Scylla. The specialist in the construction of heavy equipment for the offshore industry was commissioned by the South Korean shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries, announced Huisman on Monday.
Jun 21 '13 07:54
A new 90 megawatt wind farm is ready to be built in western Netherlands. The announcement was made by the European energy company RWE on Thursday.
