Dubbed as the world's largest offshore wind farm, the Dutch officials opened "The Gemini." The wind farm notably, comprises of 150 wind turbines and can generate 600 megawatts power. With more offshore wind farms coming up, the Dutch government is making an effort towards becoming carbon neutral.
The Dutch officials opened the world's largest offshore wind farm on Monday, named "The Gemini." The wind farm has 150 turbines spinning far out in North Sea, about 85 kilometers from the Groninger coast, in the Netherlands, Dutch News reported. It has a capacity of generating 600 megawatts and for the next 15 years, it will be meeting the needs of 1.5 million people.
Matthias Haag, the managing director of the company has said that the wind park is currently in operational stage and will be supplying renewable energy to 785000 Dutch homes. According to Business Times, this 2.8 billion euro project is collaborated between Northland Power, an independent renewable energy company; Siemens, the wind turbine manufacturer; Dutch maritime contractor Van Oord and HVC, a waste processing company. Notably, though the project was conceived in 2010, work on the offshore wind park started only in 2015.
It is worth mentioning here that about this new off shore wind farm will contribute about 13 per cent of the total renewable energy requirement of the country and 25 per cent of the total wind power. Additionally, it will also reduce the carbon dioxide emission by 1.25 million tons.
According to a 2016 report, it has been stated that The Netherlands is primarily dependent on fossil fuels, providing 95 percent of the energy supply. But, the Dutch government now wants to ensure that 14 percent of its energy is met from renewable sources by the year 2020, 16 percent by 2023 and by the year 2050, it aims be become carbon neutral. Moreover, to achieve this aim, the cabinet has also passed five more offshore wind farms.
