Interview with De Knotwilg

Let Energy Cooperative De Knotwilg blow instead of prune. For this energy cooperative, the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts. A conversation about cooperative values and norms.

We are going to do it together feeling

“Co-founder Jos van Oosten had contact with Eneco who wanted to place two windturbines along the A2 near Vianen. As a cooperative, we got involved and agreed with Eneco that fifty percent of the return from the windmills would go to the cooperative,” explains chairman Koos Timmer (photo). The other fifty percent would be for Eneco, but in the negotiations on this, the cooperative did not come to an agreement. “We missed the ‘we-are-gonna-do-it-together’ feeling,” explains secretary Aad Rodenburg. “With Eneco we still worked on Windpark de Groote Haar in Gorinchem. Eneco wanted to sell this wind park at one point and that’s how we ended up with Green Trust. We worked with them on wind park Zijderveld. They did give the together-doing feeling.” Together they are now developing Groote Haar wind park. “At Green Trust the lines are short and in the whole organization the cooperative feeling is embedded.”

Energy is jointly owned

But what then is that cooperative feeling? “The common interest has to be greater than the individual interest,” says Koos Timmer. “That’s what Green Trust has an eye for. Like us, they aim for the proceeds to flow partly back to the community and partly to the cooperative to start other sustainable projects.”

Besides wind energy, the energy cooperative is working with nature and environmental federations, the municipality and a number of members to investigate how a heat network can be realized to make Gorinchem natural gas-free. “We see it as our task to get people off the gas by using geothermal heat and heat pumps as an alternative,” says Koos Timmer. “Renewable energy is jointly owned. Our aim is to make the region energy independent.”

To make that happen, it’s a matter of always bringing all 250 members of the cooperative along with the developments going on and showing the importance of sustainable energy and energy independence, outlines Aad Rodenburg. “The development of Groote Haar wind farm is proceeding with difficulty. At the moment we are still waiting for a ruling from the Council of State on the construction of two wind turbines to which an objection has been made. This process runs from 2021 and costs money. The amount we needed to appeal was raised by some of our members. That gives us confidence as a board that we are pursuing the same thing together and for each other: renewable energy from local energy sources. Look, we are not just doing it for ourselves but more importantly for the generations to come after us. Fortunately, more and more people are realizing that.”