Making renewable energy affordable for the local community

Making renewable energy affordable for the local community; that’s the concept of the new Buurtmolen. A project initiated by Dutch energy coopeation Qurrent and EWT to contribute to the target of the Netherlands of 6.000 MW of onshore wind by 2020. The local community will become owner of the wind turbine and save on their energy bill, without any big investments. The first turbine is installed at the property of a farmer in Herbaijum.

The Buurtmolen belongs to locals and supplies locals. It is a smaller, quieter wind turbine that supplies locally generated electricity to local residents. A total of 460 households from the Herbaijum postcode area participate directly without any investments. The households that participate in the Buurtmolen, pay a monthly contribution via their energy bill. And because they’re generating their own electricity, they don’t pay any taxes to the government. Participants benefit from the lowest electricity rates in the Netherlands, resulting in big savings. The participants save on average about 200 euros per year on their electricity bill.

The Herbaijum community are proud and happy that the first Buurtmolen is in their neighbourhood:

“I think it’s a really good initiative, usually people don’t want to pay for it themselves. Now Qurrent and EWT are facilitating the process, and making it easy for locals to step in. You benefit from it and you even get cheaper power – what more could you want?”

Watch here the explenation video of the Buurtmolen concept:

The first Buurtmolen installed in Herbaijum (in Dutch)