Windplanblauw - Permit Management

Wind Power Plant Description

Windplanblauw is a replacement of 74 turbines, mixed on- and offshore. It is part of a regional plan to reorganize and further develop wind power in the province of Flevoland. The northern project area, indicated on the map with the colour blue, hence the name, is developed by Vattenfall and SwifterwinT.

Basically, the project consists of replacing the 74 wind turbines by 61 more efficient turbines, quadrupling the wind farm’s capacity and thus providing wind power to 400.000 households. The improved wind farm will also be aligned neatly into the landscape.

Project Description

The site offers multiple challenges and complexities. For instance, the offshore part of the offshore part of the wind farm is located in a lake, which makes it hard to reach for installation vessels because of shallow waters. The construction of this farm differs too much from regular offshore to apply offshore-regulations. It is because of this that another category of wind had to be introduced by the government: lake-wind.

Another challenge is posed by the fact that a number of the turbines will be located in the Swifter Park, where 4000 years old remains of the ‘Swifterbant Culture’ that can be found right beneath ground level. There is no standard procedure that can be followed. Instead, a major collaboration has been setup between the project, the township, province, the Government Service for Cultural Heritage, knowledge centres and universities.

IX’s role was:

• To coordinate multiple permitting procedures and development of an ‘Archaeological Masterplan’
• Management of the archaeological field surveys.

After the construction of the wind farm in 2021 expectations are that it will be fully operational by 2022.

Update 27-01-2022

Nearshore is getting closer and closer to start construction for foundations. It is a major challenge to meet the conditions of the water permit in time. Agreements must also be made with stakeholders about the closure of the work area and these parties must be kept well informed of developments.

As a noise and shadow coordinator, IX has a number of tasks related to noise exposure on company homes and shadow calculations for an intended new-build project within the contours of the wind farm. This work is carried out between the project team and consultancy Witteveen en Bos.

Schedule:

• Start of setting up turbines on land: early March 2022
• Start construction of foundations in the IJsselmeer: ​​early April 2022

For more information, please contact us