The first subsidy-free wind farm in Belgium is operational!

Wind farm Haven Gent Phase 3b
17 Jun 2022

On June 14th, Flemish Minister Matthias Diependaele put into operation the new Storm wind farm on the ArcelorMittal Belgium site in the Port of Ghent. He did so in the presence of a considerable number of co-operators, employees and sympathizers of Storm and ArcelorMittal Belgium.

It is the first subsidy-free operational wind farm in our country. The wind farm consists of three wind turbines with a rotor diameter of 162 metres, a tip height of 230 metres and a capacity of 6 MW per turbine. They are currently the largest wind turbines in Belgium.

The wind farm does not rely on the Green Certificate system. ArcelorMittal Belgium will be buying up all the power generated by the wind farm at a fixed price for a 20-year period. In doing so, they are assuring themselves of a guaranteed supply of cheap and renewable energy.

Wind power is the cheapest form of electricity production in Belgium. One MWh of power generated by a new wind turbine costs less than one MWh of electricity generated by, for example, a new gas plant, coal plant, biomass plant or nuclear plant.

To assist with the entry into service, Storm, the little boy of one of ArcelorMittal’s employees, lent us a helping hand. He passes the wind turbines on his way to school every day. His mom had e-mailed us a couple of months ago to tell us that Storm really is super fascinated with the wind turbines that bear his name. We thought it quite fitting and nice, therefore, to invite little Storm over to assist with the inauguration and entrust him with the patronage of the wind farm.

Storm is super proud of his new wind farm!