The traditional Ducth landscape: flat, green, a dike in the background, and a windmill gently turning in the foreground. Ah, how pastoral.
Well, not so much these days. The Dutch are starting to get sick of all the power-generating windmills that are in their picturesque landscape, so they are deciding to move some of their windfarms offshore where they can't be seen.
In all truth, these wind turbines seem barely related to the windmills of the past: their arms reach as high as a football field is long - and the first offshore wind farm is going have 36 of them, all side-by-side. The Dutch government - which aims to get 9 % of its energy from renewable sources by 2010 (which is only four years away, folks..!!), has mapped out plans for a total of 65 offshore wind farms in the next ten yous. Somehow they have managed to do this without obstructing shipping lanes or anyone's view (except perhaps on extremely clear days - and methinks those are pretty rare in Holland).
The Netherlands seems to be working really hard to make renewables "work". I wish we were as committed to finding alternatives that work in Canada.
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1 comment:
I like the windmills, but a lot of people don't. Even the windmills aren't truely green energy since they disript the normal air currents thus causing all sorts of problems for birds etc., but they are greener energy. The only real solution it to reduce energy consumption, not replace the source.
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