So we in fact reached our goal a year earlier than planned, said Boon, adding that an increase in the number of wind farms across the country and off the coast of the Netherlands had helped NS achieve its aim. Built 1992 this nearshore wind farm had just 4 Nedwind 500 KW turbines based 1km to shore. [9] As a first step, the government has determined 65 sites for offshore wind farms in the North Sea and IJsselmeer. This text is selectively excerpted from a chapter written by David Hughes in Carbon Shift (2009), a book I co-edited. This type of fuel is considered to be climate-neutral, as it does not cause CO2 emissions. The real electricity they use is of course no more or less green than other companies on the same grid use. In contrast to onshore wind farms, almost all turbines by January 2017 were situated in just a few large wind farms. . NS Dutch Railways has partnered with energy company Eneco to use its wind. Putting these numbers together indicates that only 10-15% of the electricity consumed annually by NSs electric trains will come from wind, with the rest a mixture that includes mostly Dutch gas and coal plus a small amount of Belgian and German coal, nuclear and lignite and maybe even a little German solar. The Netherlands, aka Windmill Country, is now operating 100 percent of its electric trains with wind energy. Consumers in NL can choose suppliers that deliver 100% renewable, or 100% wind, or 100% dutch generated wind, etc. Same thing if you got solar panels on your house. However, this quotation, which comes from an essay written by earth scientist David Hughes, was cherry-picked and presented out of context to create a deliberately misleading version of what the author actually said. [14] A second hand market for turbines also exists, which could grow as older turbines are replaced by larger newer ones. Its standard accounting practice. Their goal was to operate all NS trains on electricity produced by wind turbines by January 2018. The fund is paid for by adding a surcharge to household electricity bills. As of January 1, all trains in the Netherlands now run entirely on wind power (that is to say electricity generated by wind farms, not masts and sails). Pingback: Antidotes were hard to find this week as one cheering message after another was debunked only Positive News was buoyant | C 3000: antidote to gloom, Pingback: International Energy Agency Electricity Production Statistics for OECD Countries 2014 2016 | Blogging about energy and transitioning to clean energy, Click image to download live UK grid data, Per Capita Energy Consumption North America, Per Capita Energy Consumption South America, Per Capita Energy Consumption Former Soviet Union, Per Capita Energy Consumption Middle East, Per Capita Energy Consumption Asia Pacific, Refinery Output and Product Demand North America, Refinery Output and Product Demand Europe, Refinery Output and Product Demand Middle East, Refinery Output and Product Demand Asia Pacific, newly built wind farms in . The actual amount of green energy produced is unaffected.. And given that the company carries 600,000 people per day, the amount of electricity they need isnt trivial around 1.2 billion kWh of electricity a year. As of Jan. 1, 600,000 daily train passengers have been traveling completely carbon neutral, according to an announcement from the Netherlands principal passenger railway operator, NS. one of their national railway companies, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), 700 MW offshore windfarm near the town of Borssele. Knew this was BS from the headline. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The Dutch government is looking to ramp up the nations share of renewable energy from 4 percent in 2014 to 16 percent in 2023. If thats the case, it marks a major turning point in the story of renewables. This energy is directly traceable to individual wind farms, because we use the GVO European Certification System. In total, NS consumes around 1.2 TWh of electricity to power its trains. [18], In the first week of December 2016, all 150 turbines of the new 600 MW Gemini offshore windfarm began producing power, and the project is expected to be fully commissioned by mid 2017. The company said all electric trains were now powered by wind energy. What Is (And Isn't) Scientific About The Multiverse. If it was based on the former there would a strong possibility that these companies could be oversubscribed with customers who may not receive true renewable energy when the wind does not blow. It probably has a lower calorific value, a greater CO2 content (up to 30%/40% from some sources), and your local regs may insist it be odourised. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. These. At least they are investing in renewable energy. Established 1983. In late 2015, the Dutch government announced its goal to power the country's electric trains entirely with wind power by 2018. Rail networks source this electricity from the grid, and just like for our homes, its transmitted to them via high-voltage lines. 150, 200, 225, 300, 500, 750, 850 and 1300kW. . But none of this wind power is directly connected to the NS rail system. In fact, an investigation by Energy Matters finds that the electrified portion of NS mainly runs on electricity derived from coal and natural gas. What Was It Like When The Universe First Created More Matter Than Antimatter? I find that the electrified portion of the Dutch railway network (Nederlandse Spoorwegen, or NS) runs on grid electricity that comes dominantly from fossil fuel generation (natural gas and coal). supply from NSs contracted windfarms,and if their supply drops below the train systems demand, The headline: Netherlands Trains Now Running on 100% Wind Power. Julian Turner gets the inside track on the unique collaboration from Michel Kerkhof, account manager at Eneco. The construction of these wind farms along with others in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Finland helped NS and Eneco to hit their target so far ahead of schedule. Reply to Rod above went to the wrong place and left off the smiley after Albania. Therefore, entities enter into power purchase agreements, PPAs, with various other entities that produce, or resell energy, such as electric utilities. Dutch trains to be wind-powered from 2018. [15], In February 2022 the Netherlands announced it increased its offshore wind target to 21 GW by 2030. Earlier this week, one of their national railway companies, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), announced that, since 1st January, every single one of its electric trains have been running on energy harvested from wind. The Dutch railways network (NS) started using wind energy generated by the turbines owned by electric company Eneco two years ago when they signed a ten-year agreement. We do something like this California with biogas. http://elering.ee/cross-border-physical-flows/ (CONTINUED), London Underground trains use two conductor rails to manage their electricity needs (Image courtesy [+] of BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images), In all cases, this regenerated electricity can be returned to the power line via the conductor rail. Supply from all generators is monitored in any case, all youd have to do is add up the [1] In 2019, the wind turbines provided the country with 12% of its electricity demand during the year, a figure that is growing but somewhat below the average of 15% that wind power provides across the whole of the EU's electricity consumption. The largest wind farm in the Netherlands is Noordoostpolder with a capacity of 429 MW. Switch them back on by degrees. London Undergrounds system provides 600V of direct current to their conductor rails, still enough to be potentially lethal. [17] Where the parks will come and how they will be built is still being discussed. The 600,000 daily. Two of the models are still under production. NS claims 100% wind power because it has a contract with various wind farms to produce enough energy to power its rail system, but this is just an accounting transaction, writes author Roger Andrews. But in reality, the commercial parties are making a double killing: getting free money throughout the FIT contract (paid for 100% by households) *and* profiting from the PR value of presenting themselves as selflessly investing their own money in wind and solar energy for the planet. More than wind and solar together right now. Do the claims about Netherlands trains also require further explanation? These include the 580km NorNed submarine cable (700 MW) link to Norway, the 1,000 MW BritNed cable link to the United Kingdom and the COBRA cable link to Denmark (700 MW). Netherlands take e-mobility to next level: 100% of countrys trains are powered by #wind: https://t.co/U1oDry30ll pic.twitter.com/c0vrXxrDZl, UN Climate Change (@UNFCCC) January 10, 2017. Nor should you you probably get shaved 20% faster than me! This year the country is due to start operating a 600-megawatt offshore wind farm, called Gemini. The Netherlands currently has a total of 2,200 wind turbines across the country, according to DutchNews.nl. Produced at least 8 models with power outputs of 100, 250, 500, 1000kW. So the standard is that 100% renewable utilities buy or produce same amount of 100% renewable electricity they sell. Active 2020. If the train line is a busy one, with small gaps between scheduled trains, the electricity produced by one helps to power the very next one that comes along. It sharply cut subsidies down to 1.5 billion, leaving private sector to carry over wind turbine investments should these be beneficial.[6]. Many small scale wind farms exist throughout the Netherlands which bear testament to earlier models of wind turbines and lesser known manufacturers which provided a range of niche products, ranging in size and power output. if any Finnish electron reaches Netherlands most likely it goes via Baltic states, Poland and Germany. Some of the nations that supply power to NS such as Germany, Belgium, and Finland, do generate wind power, but only in modest amounts. Fossil fuel-fired power plants produced over 80% of the electricity in the Netherlands, mainly natural gas (42%) and coal (35%). The other thing most people (at least in the US) dont consider when they see stories like this: A country like the Netherlands is literally 1/3 the size of the state of Ohio. No direct subsidies from the government are related to this contract.. As Enecos account manager Michel Kerkhof pointed out, the key objective is to avoid procuring energy from the limited existing number of sustainable energy projects in the Netherlands, thus promoting renewable growth both domestically and Europe-wide., This partnership ensures that new investments can be made in even newer wind farms, which will increase the share of renewable energy, Kerkhof continued. "So we in fact reached our goal a year earlier than planned," spokesman Ton Boon told AFP. Eneco has agreed to supply 1.4 terawatt hours (TWh) of wind-sourced power by 2018, which is roughly the same amount of energy consumed by all the households in Amsterdam, the capital city. Its our offshore coal burn. Acquired by Lagerway in 1998. But you seem happy to gloss over the fact that Germanys cheap power comes from coal, nuclear and Russian gas. The national railway company, NS, said that its renewables target had been met a year earlier than planned. The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. This record was immediately beaten the following year with another 766 MW being added. I am laughing. power for over 400,000 households every day, a figure roughly equivalent to the number of households in the Northern Netherlands.[13]. The Nuclear Humanist 1.75K subscribers 40 Dislike Share 814 views Jul 23, 2017 The Dutch Railway Corporation. So, 1) I didnt write the text, 2) the text itself is selectively quoted, and 3) the argument it makes, taken in isolation, is meaningless. French people are bricoleurs they like to build their own house, thanks to the fact that if it has a surface below 175 m2 you dont need to go through an architect, you can do your own building plan. RE fans should understand that present mainstream RE technologies ( mostly PV and wind) require considerable real estate and in our small island one cannot travel very far without having a wind farm in view. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/5329/Bothi_BEEThesis.pdf;sequence=1, When wind power is fed into a grid it becomes inextricably mixed with all the vibrating electrons from other generation sources to the point where there is no way of knowing where any power taken from the grid came from.. "Exploiting wind power in Holland." By tapping into both domestic and foreign sources of wind power, it [ensures] that there is always sufficient green power available on the grid for rail companies, even if the wind is not blowing, the company explained. [5] The first of these, the 429 MW Noordoostpolder wind farm was already partially deployed by year end 2015 whilst the 600 MW Gemini offshore wind farm was commissioned in 2017. 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