It was celebrated with promptness and splendor when the wind farm on Thorup-Sletten on the border between the municipalities of Jammerbugt and Vesthimmerland was inaugurated in September last year.
The wind farm has a capacity of 77 MW and consists of 18 Siemens SWT 130 4.3 MW wind turbines, which can supply electricity to 65,000 people in North Jutland, making it Denmark's largest onshore wind farm.
- It makes me both as Minister of Industry and Trade and a North Jutland resident really proud that North Jutland can now boast of having Denmark's largest onshore wind farm, said Minister of Industry and Trade Simon Kollerup (S) at the inauguration.
But there may not be much reason to be proud. Because the wind farm was built on an invalid basis. This is evident from a decision by the Planning Appeals Board.
"The Planning Appeals Board revokes the environmental report for Jammerbugt Municipality's local plan no. 03-001, as well as Vesthimmerland Municipality's municipal plan supplement no. 09-316-49 and local plan no. 1065. The board also revokes Jammerbugt Municipality's local plan no. 03-001. This means that the environmental report and the local plan are no longer valid," reads the decision from the Planning Appeals Board.
Lack of knowledge about bird impacts
The reason for the revocation is mainly that, according to the Planning Appeals Board, the birds blue harrier and common harrier have not been taken into account.
The birds have been observed in a bird protection area located approx. 3.5 km from the turbines and have been designated as focus species whose living conditions must be taken into account in an environmental report.
However, this has not been the case in the studies for the wind turbine project on Thorup-Sletten, and the municipalities have explained why the birds were omitted from the environmental report. This now has consequences for all the work done around the approval.
"The Planning Appeals Board finds that there is a legal deficiency in the impact assessment, as it does not contain complete, precise and final findings and conclusions that can remove any reasonable scientific doubt in relation to the impact on the common harrier," states the Planning Appeals Board's report. The same wording is used in the criticism of the environmental report's assessment of the impact on the living conditions of the common harrier.
In addition to the concern for the blue harrier and the common harrier, the Planning Appeals Board also points out that the conclusions of the environmental report in relation to displacement in the zone around the bird protection area are undocumented, which is why these must also be examined in more detail.
Approvals must be renewed
If the Thorup-Sletten wind farm is to be legalized, the two municipalities must start the process from scratch. This means that new environmental assessments and local plans must be made. In this connection, a number of factors must be taken into account, the Planning Appeals Board writes in the decision.
DK Vindkraft is working to get a comment from Eurowind and the municipalities involved.
You can read the entire Planning Appeals Board decision here.
Text, graphics, images, sound, and other content on this website are protected under copyright law. DK Medier reserves all rights to the content, including the right to exploit the content for the purpose of text and data mining, cf. Section 11b of the Copyright Act and Article 4 of the DSM Directive.
Customers with IP agreements/major customer agreements may only share Danish Offshore Industry articles internally for the purpose of handling specific cases. Sharing in connection with specific cases refers to journaling, archiving, or similar uses.
Customers with a personal subscription/login may not share Danish Offshore Industry articles with individuals who do not themselves have a personal subscription to Danish Offshore Industry.
Any deviation from the above requires written consent from DK Medier.
