Wind farm Staphorst

Bovenwind Wind Farm, also known as Staphorst Wind Farm, consists of 3 wind turbines in the municipality of Staphorst, and has an installed capacity of approximately 12 MW. The developer and owner of the wind farm is the cooperative Wij Duurzaam Staphorst (WDS), which initiated the wind farm in collaboration with the Waterschap Drents Overijsselse Delta. In 2017, the municipality of Staphorst expressed the ambition to build 12 MW of wind energy. The municipality has therefore called for initiatives and has drawn up an assessment framework to assess these initiatives based on participation, local ownership and spatial quality. In response to this, the WDS cooperative was founded by local citizens, believing that if the construction of wind turbines was unavoidable, Staphorst wanted to do this itself in order to be at the helm and obtain the earnings itself. The water authority is working with WDS on the basis of its sustainable energy objectives. With this project, WDS shows that local cooperatives can independently undertake the development of a wind farm. Pondera is supporting the cooperative in developing the project. Initially, this involved drawing up a so-called Wind Plan in which all aspects of the wind farm (spatial quality, development process, finances, etc.) had to be described. After successful submission in which the WDS plan was selected by the municipality, Pondera drew up an Environmental Impact Report for the wind farm and made a substantive contribution to the meetings with the local sounding board group, public meetings and discussions with local residents and other stakeholders.

After the choice of the VKA, the permit applications were drawn up and submitted on behalf of the initiative by Pondera. Pondera then successfully applied for the SDE+ subsidy on the basis of the permit granted.  Pondera is now supporting the cooperative in the follow-up. Pondera is currently taking care of the tender for the purchase and construction of the wind turbines and the grid connection.