Belgians — who view their Dutch neighbors to the north as stereotypically stingy, arrogant and noisy — may have found a novel way to take the wind out of the Netherlands’ sails. As the North Sea fills with offshore renewable energy farms, Belgians have been accused of stealing wind from Dutch turbines. A huge expansion of wind power in the region is having an impact on atmospheric stability and affecting the wind in the wake of wind farms, snatching power from neighboring turbines. Some wind farms in Belgium are taking up to 3% of generating power from Dutch installations, posing the risk of future conflicts over air currents. Plans made two years ago will lead to a tenfold increase in wind power by 2050 at a cost of €800 billion ($900 billion). By 2030, the bloc of countries has set a target for North Sea wind energy of a combined 120 gigawatts. The current level is 30 gigawatts. Britain has the biggest array of offshore wind farms — 45 of them, currently producing 14 gigawatts — but there are plans to expand to 50 gigawatts by 2030. “We don’t want a ‘race to the water’, where whoever builds first gets the most favorable wind,” Verzijlbergh added.
