WINDENERGY MAGAZINE 02 2018

INTERVIEW
COOPERATIVES DELTAWIND & ZEEUWIND:
JOINING FORCES
IN THE LARGEST
CITIZEN’S INITIATIVE
A unique wind farm is emerging around the Krammersluizen, with 34 wind turbines that
have a total capacity of 102 megawatts. The initiators of this wind farm in and around the
Krammersluizen are in fact the 4,800 members of the Zeeuwind and Deltawind cooperatives,
making Windpark Krammer the largest citizens’ initiative of the Netherlands. Construction
began in January 2017, and the wind farm should be operational next year.
ERIK VAN HUIZEN
21 of the 34 wind turbines are already in position
at Windpark Krammer, with a height of 125 meter
and with 56 meter long rotor blades that weigh 26
tonnes. The turbine’s weight, including tower and
foundation, equals 4,381 tonnes. Approximately
3,000 employees will work on the wind farm in the
forthcoming period, an average of 200 people per
day and 650 unique individuals each week. The
ascending tower cranes are also striking features.
There are only four of these cranes in Europe, three
of these are presently used for constructing this
wind farm. 95% of the wind farm’s power is sold
to four multinationals, namely Google, AkzoNobel,
DSM, and Philips, without intervention from an
energy company. As Windpark Krammer is a citizens’
initiative, the consumer in this case supplies
the industry.
DELTAWIND COOPERATIVE
As a local cooperative, Deltawind also owns, alongside
its share in Windpark Krammer, a total of 22
MW of installed wind capacity and a 0.85 MW solar
farm. The cooperative currently has 2,500 members,
all of them are inhabitants of the island. With
wind farms Battenoert (40 million kWh per year)
and Piet de Wit (43 million kWh per year), Deltawind
is now already producing more than the electricity
consumption of all the Goeree-Overflakkee
households combined. Deltawind expects to build
another 9 MW on the island in the years to come.
This will bring the total for Goeree-Overflakkee,
which Deltawind is focusing on, to a capacity of
225 MW. ‘We have completed this’, explains Deltawind
Director Monique Sweep. ‘We will now target
other parts of energy transition, such as collective
solar roofs for private individuals. We will also be
examining other forms of energy such as hydrogen
and methane from seaweed, and storing energy at
the Krammersluizen.’
ZEEUWIND
Citizens’ cooperative Zeeuwind will also focus
on storing energy. Zeeuwind has been around for
some 30 years, and back in the days we started
with three wind turbines. The cooperative counts
2,300 members, mainly private individuals. All of
the 13 municipalities in Zeeland are members too,
as well as several companies, associations, and
foundations. The cooperative owns multiple wind
farms, with a total capacity of 20 MW. Zeeuwind
in the following years expects to double the total
capacity with new projects and scaleups. An old
turbine of one of the wind farms was replaced by a
new one at the beginning of this year. This 2.3 MW
turbine is expected to annually produce 3.9 million
kWh. Zeeuwind also finances 25% of Windpark
Bouwdokken, which is built on the dams of the
former Bouwdokhavens on the Neeltje Jans production
platform. These seven turbines have a capacity
of 4.2 MW each, and have since early 2018 onwards
jointly generated 112.5 million kWh of electricity
per year.
TWENTY-YEAR OLD PLAN
Deltawind and Zeeuwind have already collaborated
on a smaller scale, but the project on the Krammersluizen
came into view in 2008. The cooperatives
now together have 51% of the shares in Windpark
Krammer. The remaining 49% is owned by turbine
builder Enercon. The idea for the wind farm originated
over two decades ago. According to Marten
Wiersma, Chairman of the Zeeuwind supervisory
board, the fact that it did not materialise back then
is because the Rijkswaterstaat (Department of Waterways
and Public Works), the owner of the land
in those days, thought it was ‘a scary idea’ to build
on top of a primary flood defence. ‘The wind turbines
back then also had a capacity that was far too
low, which made the grid connection far too costly.
>>
Windpark Krammer, photo by Erik van huizen
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