[15], In February 2022 the Netherlands announced it increased its offshore wind target to 21 GW by 2030. 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). Yes, they are called dwarves, or possibly hobbits. from northern Maine to southern Florida, about 1800 miles in 0.01 second. Thatd give us a consumption figure for the city of around 1.5 billion kWh. Once its in the network, there are three main options for getting the electricity to the trains themselves: Youve probably noticed at least one of these options on your rail journeys. Rod, you must live in Albania E.ON wanted to put my tariff up from 9.79p to 13.87p. These. It is a special fund used by the Dutch government to make investments in renewable energy profitable. simply use the smart technology to cut them off until their consumption matches the wind farms output. Railway Gazette reports that NS records about 1.2 million passenger-journeys per day, with an annual energy requirement for 1.2 billion kWh. Really funny, as it cuts it both ways when you dont know reality and cant speak French you have to believe what you find on the English writing interwebs or the greenpiss propaganda leaflets. Deregulation Is Still Wrong for Consumers. But its a funny read. The other half comes from newly built wind farms in . Its of course a waste to install a separate grid with only 100% renewable electricity. I happen to know a little about the Dutch grid and its power networks: interconnectors to other countries have long been bottlenecks and monopolising capacity on them has proved to be quite profitable in the past to those who trade electricity in more than one country. Many of these smaller companies were eventually acquired by the larger wind turbine manufactures such as Vestas, Siemens and Lagerwey. Dutch trains now run on green, renewable energy (Image courtesy of Groenetrain/NS/Eneco). Does anyone even believe that? In other words, the two oldest sources of renewable power, water and wood, are carrying most of the burden for Burlingtons renewable achievement, not the sources that might come to mind when people read the headline. As of January 1, all electric passenger trains on the Dutch rail network have been run on wind energy, according to a statement from operator NS (via EcoWatch ). All day so far. HomerDixon.com. Once stored, this electricity can be sold to the main power grid, helping the city to top up peak demand, and earning the train company money in the process. (End of excerpt). Instead of trains recovering energy for their own use, any excess power is directed to a centralized bank of lithium-ion batteries. What happens where there is insufficient wind for the required duration to powerup the batteries? Sign up for our email newsletter! Belgium and Finland, wind farm portfolio guarantees sufficient capacity to cover such eventualities, http://www.sciencealert.com/all-electric-trains-in-the-netherlands-are-now-100-powered-by-wind-energy, http://www.djtelectricaltraining.co.uk/downloads/50Hz-Frequency.pdf, http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-e1-and-vs-t1/, https://askjaenergy.com/2015/03/23/does-apple-not-want-truly-green-data-centers/. Money doesnt matter to me. Since 1 January, 100% of our trains are running on wind energy, said NS spokesman, Ton Boon. NS would only care for the environment as a PR stunt, not for the betterment of the planet. The turbines supply enough energy to power 2.4 million households. Gimme a break. [13] The wind farm demonstrates the growth in scale in wind power as between 1987 and 1991 it was the largest of its kind in Europe with 50 turbines and a total nameplate capacity of 15 MW. 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. N.p., 13 November 2000. Half of this electricity comes from the Netherlands, and the other half is imported from Sweden, Finland, and Belgium. And of course no such connections exist. If you would like to know more, click here. Its production also does not use any natural raw materials or food production resources. Overall, the Netherlands has over 2,000 wind turbines spread across the country. The wind farm's 86 wind turbines will produce 1.4 billion kWh of electricity, enough. Knew this was BS from the headline. Surprisingly, even the electricity is sourced from windmill electric generato. It's a bit of smoke and mirrors but it helps to subside more expensive forms of generation. Some of the newer larger wind farms currently under construction are replacing smaller turbines previously installed at given locations. That is, a windmill could spin until it falls apart and never generate as much energy as was invested in building it. It seems small compared with our renewables subsidies in the UK, which are of the order fo 150-450 times as big per MWh. Obvious to the meanest intelligence. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. That would power a large proportion of all of the households in Amsterdam**. Even the two Dutch wind farms with which NS contracts directly for wind power, Noordoostpolder and Luchterduinen, are tied generally to the Dutch grid and not tied directly into the NS rail system. 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. If a energy supply company contracts with a renewable provider ( I am not including nuclear sources) would it be based on the installed power of the wind farms or a capacity factor adjusted power capabilities? But you seem happy to gloss over the fact that Germanys cheap power comes from coal, nuclear and Russian gas. This text is selectively excerpted from a chapter written by David Hughes in Carbon Shift (2009), a book I co-edited. As his statements were presented in that meme, Homer-Dixon appeared to have asserted that windmills never produce as much energy as is expended in building them: The quotations selectively employed in the meme were taken from Homer-Dixon's 2009 book Carbon Shift: How Peak Oil and the Climate Crisis Will Change Canada (and Our Lives). Good for Nederlandse Spoorwegen. One thing I should have mentioned in the post is why NS doesnt get all its wind power from Netherlands wind farms. According to DutchNews.nl, there's currently a total of 2,200 wind turbines across the country. They have been working with Eneco, a sustainable energy supplier operating in the Netherlands, for several years. one of their national railway companies, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), 700 MW offshore windfarm near the town of Borssele. [5] In 2020 wind power provided 11.54% of the Dutch electricity generation (see table above) while solar power provided an additional 7.25% for a combined 18.79% - easily meeting the target without taking other renewable sources into account, even though the target for onshore wind capacity was not met. According to Railway Technology because it has a: green energy contract thought to be among the largest yet signed in Europe between power supplier Eneco and VIVENS, an energy procurement joint venture comprising Netherlands Railways (NS), Veolia, Arriva, Connexxion and rail freight firms, and because, NS and Eneco have carefully selected a list of wind farms that fulfil their criteria of being traceable, sustainable or renewable and additional, or new, and because, This partnership ensures that new investments can be made in even newer wind farms, which will increase the share of renewable energy. Roger, How it then gets used depends on the city were in. Data from Frontier Economics. The next largest onshore wind farm is the Westereems wind farm located in Eemshaven in Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands. But of course even two-thirds of the NS system doesnt run completely on wind power. * Just an FYI, this official infographic shows that the scheme saves 1.4 billion kWh of electricity, which they say is the same as whats used by ALL of Amsterdams residents. This is about two-thirds of the system. Wind turbines feed electricity into the grid and the electric company credits them for the electricity. A two-megawatt windmill contains 260 tonnes of steel requiring 170 tonnes of coking coal and 300 tonnes of iron ore, all mined, transported and produced by hydrocarbons. Headlines like this make people feel good. This passage was written by David Hughes. A NS train. The 129 MW Eneco Luchterduinen wind farm is located 23km off the coast between Zandvoort and Noordwijk cities in the Netherlands. In August 2015, a meme posted to the Google+ group "The Secret Society of Anti-AGW-ACC Cultism," an organization that claims climate change is a hoax, reproduced the words allegedly written by Thomas Homer-Dixon, the Associate Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation, on the subject of windmills. Started operation in 2001 and is developing a 6,000kW two blade downwind turbine. BTW, I have never felt deprived by having 60 Hz instead of 50Hz. Wheres the renewable engy only socket? Not relevant here. See the table below for the current situation. NS Dutch Railways has partnered with energy company Eneco to use its wind. However, early successes in rolling out the clean energy program . In total, NS consumes around 1.2 TWh of electricity to power its trains. The historical land of windmills is leading the charge in wind energy development. Harried Dutch commuters may not be entirely cognisant of the fact . However, everyone must have a contract to be authorized to draw energy from the grid; otherwise it would be stealing. Probably not. We do something like this California with biogas. [10] [11] [12], 2015 Well, it actually claims that only the electrified portion runs on 100% wind. The Dutch government is looking to ramp up the nations share of renewable energy from 4 percent in 2014 to 16 percent in 2023. Do Dutch trains run on Wind? The Netherlands is also well prepared for a significant rise in the production of intermittent power from wind energy by good linkages to its neighbours via high voltage cables enabling power to be imported or exported as required. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. 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