Investigative journalist Elze van Hamelen and MP Henk Vermeer

The drawbacks of the massive deployment of wind turbines on land, especially regarding public health, are very serious but don’t receive enough attention. That is the conclusion of a new Clintel report Het Windmolendrama (The Wind Turbine Tragedy). Following the report, the Dutch coalition party BBB (the farmers party) calls for an immediate stop on new wind turbines on land.

Major health concerns
The Clintel-rapport Het Windmolendrama (“The Wind Turbine Tragedy”) makes a critical inventory of the political, scientific, economic and legal issues surrounding wind turbines on land in The Netherlands. The report is very extensive (130 pages) and also published as a book. The report is written in Dutch because so many issues are specific for the situation in The Netherlands.

The major issue in the report are the possible health effects of wind turbine noise, which so far have been largely ignored by the Dutch government (institutions), especially the health impact of infrasonic vibrations, which include chronic sleep deprivation and heart disease. There has not been a proper large scale investigation of these effects in The Netherlands.

Partly because of these neglected health issues, the report states that there is insufficient legal basis for the deployment of (new) wind turbines on land. Planned wind turbines have now a tip height of 280 meters, almost as high as the Eiffel Tower. The deployment directly conflicts with several European laws and treaties. Furthermore, the report demonstrates that Dutch citizens have not been properly consulted (and listened to) in the decision making process.

Finally, The Wind Turbine Tragedy points out that wind turbines on land have damaging environmental effects and are costly and inefficient in reducing CO2.

Parliamentary questions
Clintel director Marcel Crok presented the report to Henk Vermeer, co-founder and Member of Parliament for the political party BBB (Farmer-Citizen Movement), on October 31st. In his reaction to the scathing findings, Vermeer announced he would submit a list of questions to the responsible minister for Climate and Green Growth (Sophie Hermans, People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) and call for an immediate stop on new wind turbines on land. Vermeer intends to put maximum pressure on the government coalition on this issue, while acknowledging that BBB is a junior coalition party and is bound to the coalition agreement, signed this summer.

Later this month there will be a parliamentary debate on the revision of norms for wind turbine noise.

Elze van Hamelen

The author of the report is investigative journalist Elze van Hamelen. She started out as a (business) consultant on sustainable development. “Because of a strong sense of idealism, I started my career in sustainability. I was convinced that business has a pivotal role to play in the transition to sustainability. However, in practice, sustainability has matured into a whole business segment, that applies standardized methods and is promoted through slick marketing.”

Van Hamelen therefore made a radical career switch and is now an investigative journalist pointing out, amongst other things, the significant drawbacks of the current energy transition.