Today, five villages in Dutch municipality of Noordoostpolder received the first annual contribution of EUR 10,000 each, and will receive the sum from the of Noordoostpolder wind project over the next 20 years.
The community fund will thus award EUR 200,000 per village over the 20 years, and EUR 1 million overall.
The villages Creil, Espel, Nagele, Rutten and Tollebeek can invest the amount into promotion and development.
The province/municipality receives EUR 60,000 annually that are, among other things, used for the operation of the visitors center 11BEAUFORT in Nagele. Also, approximately sixty households closest to the wind turbines receive a fee of about EUR 1,800 euros, covering an average annual electricity bill.
The Noordoostpolder Wind Farm wind farm consists of 86 wind turbines, 48 of which are in the water – the Westermeerwind wind farm. The project is able to supply more than 400,000 households with clean energy.
The Noordoostpolder Wind Farm has been developed by three partners, each building and exploiting their share of the 86 turbines: Westermeerwind, NOP Agrowind and RWE.