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January 30, 1998

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THE RETURN OF THE WINDMILL

When it comes to harvesting energy, the Dutch are going back to the basics. Patricia Kelly reports on the return of the windmill. This is one of the world's first industrial power plants. Today, it's a tourist attraction, a reminder of the past.

But the Dutch haven't abandoned the idea of making the wind work for them. Giant wind , most of them located on or near the coast, the winds to feed the country's electricity grid. The government has plans to build more wind farms.

The Dutch want to cut ten percent of the fossil fuels they consume by the year 2020. Wind energy is expected to contribute up to one quarter of the savings. Instead of being on land, wind parks will be located in the North Sea, the first, about eight kilometers off-shore.

"On land, there won't be room enough in the Netherlands, so we have to go off-shore. And we start this development with the demonstration wind farm of about one hundred megawatts, which can be installed in the year 2000."

One hundred megawatts will supply the electricity needs of one hundred thousand , an average-size town. In Denmark, off-shore farms are expected to produce up to four thousand megawatts of energy in the next thirty years.

"We already have a national of one thousand five hundred megawatts on land, of windmills, in 2005. But now we ourselves to increase that capacity, or that commitment, by fifty percent, and do it at sea."

A futuristic video, produced by the environmental organization Greenpeace, highlights the added benefits of off-shore wind parks.

"The growth of sea creatures on these support structures becomes a new source of food for fish. And because fishing is not allowed in this area, a protective is developing here for young fish."

Greenpeace, with wide-spread support in Holland, is pushing the Dutch government to be more ambitious. It predicts a thirty-five square kilometer, off-shore wind park of thirty-five hundred turbines would take up only two percent of the Dutch part of the North Sea, but provide forty percent of Dutch energy demands within twenty to thirty years.

Ninety-seven percent of the Dutch population supports wind .

"Not only Germany and Scandinavia, but also Scotland, Ireland, and the U.K. have excellent wind conditions up in the north, and that could really be a , if you can picture wind farms there."

With no shortage of wind across the North Sea, there's an average of just five calm days a year.

The wind parks the Dutch are planning to locate in the North Sea will be barely visible from land. That's increased public support for wind power even further.

Patricia Kelly, CNN, the Netherlands.

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