SOEST – Anyone driving from Amersfoort in the direction of Soest can’t miss it from today: Windlust windmill. The classic wooden windmill is an eye-catcher in particular because of its location: it stands on the roof of the construction company of entrepreneur Ad van der Grift. It looks revolutionary, but it is actually an old idea with a new look, he says: “Until a hundred years ago, this was everywhere in the Netherlands.”
Van der Grift has been in love with windmills for years. In 2008, together with his father, he already rebuilt the large flour mill De Windhond on the Soester Eng. Instead of bigger, he has now made it smaller. On the grounds of his company is a kind of miniature model: freshly painted green and ready to be lifted onto the roof. Reporter Robert Jan Booij took a look this morning for Utrecht is Wakker on Radio M Utrecht.
“It’s about a third of the normal proportions,” says Van der Grift of his latest mill. “The hull is 5.5 meters high, the blades stick out 3.5 meters above it.” Still quite a monster to put on a roof, so that is done with policy. “You can never move it in one go. The concrete floor is out and the sharpening stone is put back later. Then a generator comes in to generate power.”
The beautiful windmill came across his path by chance, says the Soester entrepreneur. “Built in 1974 as a hobby project, it has driven a slat saw in the past, but it can actually power anything, including a power turbine.”
Action group ‘the mill must not go’
It gave Van der Grift the idea to put the thing on the roof of his own company. “Until the 1920s, it was very common for companies to have windmills on the roof. At that time there was hardly any electricity and diesel engines hardly existed. It is a completely gone piece of technology and we bring that history a little back.”
Van der Grift likes that Windlust will become an inevitable eye-catcher, but that’s not what it’s about. The mill enthusiast is concerned with the attractiveness of the structure itself and with the flow. “It generates between 3.5 and 5.5 kilowatt hours. There are also solar panels on the roof here, but they do nothing if the sun is not shining. February was a good example, when there was hardly any sun, but a lot of wind ; a third of the energy generated that month came from wind.”
What’s also nice: the local residents think it’s all beautiful. While the installation of modern wind turbines almost always leads to fierce protests about pollution of the view, nobody has any problems with a classic wood mill, says Van der Grift. “We’ve had a very different response. Neighbors saw that we were dismantling the mill for the move and they said that they would start an action group: ‘the mill must not go’.”
Of course, this project also fits in seamlessly with Soest’s ambition to become a climate neutral municipality. But Van der Grift is skeptical about whether the whole of Soest is going to put windmills on the roof. “I don’t see that happening yet, it’s much too intensive to maintain for that. I do it because I like it and because I can do it. But who knows, maybe you have more people who see this and think: hey this is it friendly.”