Plans to expand the Østerild Test Center north of the current area could lead to the construction of 450-meter-high wind turbines and Power-to-X plants in nature-protected dune heaths and wetlands. DOF BirdLife warns in a press release that the project could threaten protected birds, orchids and butterflies and affect the groundwater level in the area.
- The dune heaths north of the current Østerild Test Center are top-class nature. At a time when the EU and thus also Denmark have set a goal to improve existing natural areas and create more space for nature, it is shocking that the area is even up for grabs for gigantic wind turbines and Power-to-X plants, whose enormous water consumption could lower the groundwater level to the great detriment of a number of endangered and rare species. The nature in wet dune depressions in Natura 2000 areas and in bogs and lakes, which are protected by the Nature Protection Act, risks being destroyed if the expansion of the Østerild Test Center with Power-to-X facilities takes place in or close to these areas, says chairman of DOF BirdLife Egon Østergaard.
The association therefore calls for the test center to be located on agricultural land without natural values instead. According to DOF BirdLife, pumping large amounts of groundwater for Power-to-X facilities could damage nature in wet dune depressions, bogs and lakes in an area with internationally valuable dune areas.
- At DOF BirdLife, we are supporters of renewable energy, but wind turbines must be placed intelligently after qualified planning, so that the facilities do not conflict with significant natural interests. Wind turbine installations should be located on agricultural land so that they do not reduce the biodiversity of our nature, says Egon Østergaard.
Area to be investigated further
Ornithologist Henrik Haaning Nielsen, in collaboration with a number of professionals, each with their own natural specialty and local knowledge, has mapped the natural values in the area to document what will be lost if the dune heaths north of the current Østerild Test Center are built with giant wind turbines and Power-to-X facilities.
- One is that the wilderness atmosphere will disappear in the Hjardemål Klit area, which contains a very special desolate nature in Denmark. Another thing is that dune heaths, which alternate with wet depressions, small lakes and bogs, can dry out because large amounts of groundwater will be used for the facilities. This will threaten populations of the orchid Thy-cuckoo-wort, which only grows in Northwest Jutland worldwide. And the butterfly Hedepletwinge, which is completely protected throughout the EU, will have poorer habitats if the groundwater level is lowered due to pumping water for the Power-to-X plants, says Henrik Haaning Nielsen.
Over the next year, the consultancy company COWI will examine the natural values in the area as part of an environmental and habitat impact assessment. The results will be included in the government's decision on the location of the third national test center.
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