Minister of Energy and Climate Change Alain Maron (Ecolo) wants to find solutions to produce wind energy in Brussels. He said this on Tuesday in the Environment Committee. There was a plan to install a windmill on the Coca-Cola site in Anderlecht, but the project was not granted a permit.
Today there are only two small wind turbines in the Brussels Region: on top of Sibelga’s headquarters and on the roof of car manufacturer Toyota. According to Maron, it should be possible to install large wind turbines in Brussels as well. Because the advantages are clear: “They produce a lot of electricity. You need a lot of solar panels for the equivalent of a large wind turbine,” he said in the Brussels Environment Commission on Tuesday.
According to Maron, energy generated by wind does have “its place in Brussels, I am convinced of that”.
The Question Then is: Where?
A larger project could have been built on the Coca Cola site in Anderlecht, but the consultation committee issued an unfavorable recommendation because of the expected negative impact on the environment, in particular noise nuisance. It was a wind turbine 150 meters high.
According to Défi MP Jonathan de Patoul, there is now a solution for this, a new windmill model designed by an American company. According to Minister Maron, this is only a prototype, the results of which are not yet known. Nevertheless, the minister finds the concept “encouraging”.
Legislative Framework
Moreover, Maron emphasizes that the Coca Cola project has been rejected mainly due to urban planning considerations, because there is no legal framework for the installation of large wind turbines.
“I think it is not easy to install a wind turbine in Brussels. We must give priority to solar panels, biomethanisation, geothermal energy and improving the energy performance of buildings”, said State Secretary for Urban Development Pascal Smet (One.Brussels/Vooruit) earlier. Maron did ask Smet to adopt a “solution-oriented attitude”.
This article is originally published on bruzz.be
