Viewed from above, 89 wind turbines form a striking hexagon of white pinpoints against dark blue water. What makes Windpark Fryslân unusual isn’t just its shape, but the fact that the offshore wind farm isn’t far out in the ocean. It’s just six kilometres from a shore dotted with villages in a shallow lake in the Netherlands.
Anne de Groot is project director of Windpark Fryslân and Windpark Westermeerwind on the same lake, IJsselmeer. He said the freshwater locations posed some technical challenges.
“Everything was basically different than onshore,” he said.
There are also challenges compared to traditional offshore wind — including human neighbours who often aren’t keen on a big change to their surroundings.
Ontario vs. the Netherlands
Large lakes have …