The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate is conducting further research into the construction of power cables in the Wadden area. This is what Outgoing Minister Bas Van Woot wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives.
The ministry wants to install a cable across the eastern portion of Schiermonnikoog to transmit electricity from a new wind farm in the North Sea to Eemshaven on the mainland.
There is a lot of protest against this by nature organizations, local politicians and Schiermonnikoog residents. They fear that the island’s nature will be irreparably damaged, in part because the cables will be laid across the dunes at a depth of eight meters. “Digging two deep cable channels will weaken the soil and sand dunes.”
They are arguing about a way to be more eastern. But the ministry wants to reserve that area for heavy cables from wind farms to be built in the future.
The minister has now agreed with counties, municipalities and Tennet Power Transmission Company to investigate any wind farm connections across the Wadden District that will be required in the future, according to RTV Noord reports. It also takes into account how the current planned pathway under Schiermonnikoog fits into this.
The search should be ready in September.
The minister says that no irreversible steps will be taken in the next six months. “If it becomes clear in the fall that there are good reasons to change the preferred path that has been chosen, I will take that into account,” the letter addressed to the House of Representatives said. “The preconditions for this are that the natural values in the Wadden area are not irreparably damaged and the 2030 climate goals are met.”
