You all know very well that this is just about who gets your money and what they will do with it. This was 2015 data, so the wind fraction seems to have gone up from 7% to 10% but coal is really powering those trains at least 3x more than wind hey, coal powered trains, where have I heard that before? It sharply cut subsidies down to 1.5 billion, leaving private sector to carry over wind turbine investments should these be beneficial.[6]. The Dutch and other people draw energy from the European grid, which has been generated by many sources. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, Press J to jump to the feed. Wind farm output goes up again ? If its a less busy line, some of the electricity is stored in batteries on the train. wind power in the Netherlands generates 7.4 billion kWh (7.4TWh) of electricity annually, and according to BP the Netherlands total electricity generation in 2015 was 109.6TWh. 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). Per Physics 101, once electricity is fed into the grid it travels, as electromagnetic waves, at near the speed of light on un-insulated wires, i.e. Its worth remembering that data on wind and solar is available here: http://mylly.hopto.me/windineurope/wind_solar_20_countries_raw.zip. Eneco and NS said on a joint website that around 600,000 passengers daily are the first in the world to travel thanks to wind energy. Its our offshore coal burn. Since 2015 there has been a trend towards the deployment and planning for large wind farms, both onshore and offshore, with a view to the approximate tripling wind power capacity from 2015 levels by 2023. New wind farm deployment is based on the SER agreement that describes a plan for five years of tendering 700 MW per year. What Was It Like When The Universe First Created More Matter Than Antimatter? Whats the trick? There are several Dutch turbine manufacturers that continue to manufacture both large and small installations for domestic and international clients. In an anything goes era of news and social media, its not often that a post jumps off the page. The 113,3 Twh exported far exceeds the actual exports of course, but were good business for the power companies selling their power twice. What is SDE? These were often manufactured by lesser known wind turbine manufacturers, sometimes producing innovative products such as the Nedwind 2 blade turbine. Thatd give us a consumption figure for the city of around 1.5 billion kWh. [15], In February 2022 the Netherlands announced it increased its offshore wind target to 21 GW by 2030. Temporarily, they might even have a surplus to sell. This page was last edited on 14 January 2023, at 23:49. Since Lithuania has a chronic power shortage the flow normally goes North-South. 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. For example, in 2015, Burlington, Vermont, became the first city to announce it was running totally on renewable power. [2] [6] The wind park was developed off the coast of IJmuiden by Econcern and Eneco Energie, at a total cost of $522.3 million.[6]. All Dutch electric trains are now powered by wind energy, the national railway company NS has said . Everyone drawing energy from the grid is equal, on a physical basis. How much wind? 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. They have been working with Eneco, a sustainable energy supplier operating in the Netherlands, for several years. The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. The historical land of windmills is leading . This material may not be reproduced without permission. Heres a fantasy as to how Nederlandse Spoorwegen could make their claims of only using wind power a reality. When you dont know reality and cant speak German you have to believe what you find on the English writing interwebs . There are very little poor people in Germany. 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. But a recent piece of news about electricity caught my attention. These newer and larger wind farms are making use of some of the largest wind turbines available, in particular in the case of Noordoostpolder the Enercon E-126 7500kW wind turbine, the largest onshore turbine available at that time. The Same Reason You Would Study Anything Else, The (Mostly) Quantum Physics Of Making Colors, This Simple Thought Experiment Shows Why We Need Quantum Gravity, How The Planck Satellite Forever Changed Our View Of The Universe. 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. "So we in fact reached our goal a year earlier than planned," spokesman Ton Boon told AFP. Companies that want to claim that they run on green energy then just have to buy enough GoOs to cover their energy demand. 90/month for the typical 3 person household. Obvious to the meanest intelligence. I dont mind buying 100% renewable energy for my house ( I have got a small 6kw wind turbine which has supplied me for over 10 years) if it is the same price as normal electricity but I would not pay a premium for it as some suppliers charge. So I know that its true, just as if I had read it in the Guardian. Windmills have historically played a major part in the Netherlands by providing an alternative to water driven mills. Knew this was BS from the headline. While it was originally used to pump water or grind grain, wind is now helping Dutch commuters get to work. Only a small fraction of the power delivered to its trains actually comes from wind. Many of these smaller companies were eventually acquired by the larger wind turbine manufactures such as Vestas, Siemens and Lagerwey. [61] A further 228 MW of installed capacity will be added when completed. 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. Railway Gazette reports that NS records about 1.2 million passenger-journeys per day, with an annual energy requirement for 1.2 billion kWh. The question is: how long must a windmill generate energy before it creates more energy than it took to build it? The rationale is: If the Dutch railways sourced 100% of the 1.4 tWh of energy they needed each year from within the Netherlands, this would decrease availability and increase prices of green power for other parties. A little more than a tenth of all electricity consumed in the Netherlands comes from wind power, some of which is imported. Data from Frontier Economics. How it then gets used depends on the city were in. TL;DR Dutch trains run on natural gas and coal power, not wind power. Roger, Either figure comfortably exceeds the amount of electricity NS uses to power its electric trains, which is variously quoted as either 1.2 or 1.4TWh/year. Up until the Westereems Wind Park was commissioned the largest onshore wind farm was the Princess Alexia Windpark in Zeewolde (122MW),[36] consisting of 36 REpower turbines and a 3.2MW/33MWh battery storage power station of BMW i3 batteries. (Although Eneco, NSs wind power procurer, claims that its wind farm portfolio guarantees sufficient capacity to cover such eventualities . 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. N.p., 13 November 2000. To aver otherwise displays ignorance or deception. Only a small fraction of the power delivered to its trains actually comes from wind.. The green electricity we use is generated by new wind farms, which have been brought into service in phases. 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. This passage was written by David Hughes. Active 2016. Its standard accounting practice. Wind power from Finland can be discounted. Ah, so they're contracted for wind energy offset, not 100% wind energy powered. 14 October 2009. The Eneco Luchterduinen wind farm was officially opened in September 2015 and is a 50/50 joint venture between Dutch energy company Eneco and Japan's Mitsubishi corporation. Physically it makes no difference as you say, but as HeavyWeather pointed out above my money is now going to fund reactors not Energiewende, so Im happy. Blunt, Elizabeth. On-board energy storage systems, such as batteries; An overhead wire that the train connects to; or. Furthermore, both solar panels and wind turbines are capable of functioning under cold . The Harried Dutch commuters who are travelling on one of the most environmentally friendly rail networks in the whole of Europe, if not the world are being sold a bill of goods. 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. This is a BETA experience. 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. However the electricity is delivered to the train, once its there, it is used to power lights, and air-conditioning, as well as the traction motors, which are what turn the trains wheels. 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. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. [20], The Rachel Carson wind farm (also known as the Eemmeerdijk Wind Park.) The two Dutch wind farms that have contracted to sell power to NS (Noordoostpolder and Luchterduinen) are both connected directly to the Dutch grid, along with all the other power plants in the country, and NS draws its power from the grid: Figure 3: The Netherlands' electricity grid. Everybody should buy only 100% RE. The Netherlands, aka Windmill Country, is now operating 100 percent of its electric trains with wind energy. A two-megawatt windmill contains 260 tonnes of steel requiring 170 tonnes of. [1] [2] [7] The project cost $272 million and is cooperatively owned by Royal Dutch Shell and the Dutch utility company Nuon. One such example is the largest wind farm in Holland, Noordoostpolder, which is installing industrial scale wind turbines such as the new Enercon onshore wind turbines, at the time the largest onshore turbines in the world rated at 7500kW nameplate capacity. Fossil fuel-fired power plants produced over 80% of the electricity in the Netherlands, mainly natural gas (42%) and coal (35%). Three strikes. That would power a large proportion of all of the households in Amsterdam**. If NS consumes an amount of gray electricity, than other consumers who pay for gray electricity will get same amount of wind electricity mixed in their gray electricity. The Netherlands imports wind power basically because its falling behind its EU renewable energy targets. [62], Installed land-based wind capacity (MW) by. What Is (And Isn't) Scientific About The Multiverse. I believe in low carbon power, just that I also believe in security of supply, and with wind, or solar or tidal, you cant get it. An all-electric heating is much easier to implement, few properly dimensioned wires and cheap heaters, while a gas heater needs specific know-how and is much more capital-intensive. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Ad Meskens. Eneco has made a point . EV Use Is Growing, But Where Are The Chargers. Over the course of this year the average will be around 11%, equal to wind powers share of the Netherlands annual grid electricity consumption. You make one good point here which is that France has cheap electricity but expensive heating. According to Eneco, the power used by the carriers comes from newly built wind farms in the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Belgium. The company said all electric trains were now powered by wind energy. Stuart In contrast to onshore wind farms, almost all turbines by January 2017 were situated in just a few large wind farms. http://www.sciencealert.com/all-electric-trains-in-the-netherlands-are-now-100-powered-by-wind-energy. But you can arrange for a proxy burn of biogas in another state, say Colorado, and buy the rights to say you consumed it. Just whatever serves your agenda. NS would only care for the environment as a PR stunt, not for the betterment of the planet. It seems that NS may be outsourcing costs as well as power. 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. Since 2019, the buses have been powered by HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) made from processed deep fryer oil and industrial fats. By Adele Peters 1 minute Read A single. The first two are feel good justifications that have no practical impact. The third that by purchasing wind power that would otherwise have gone elsewhere NS is leaving the door open for more wind projects and more CO2 reductions is the only one that offers any tangible benefits. Thats true, of course. It feels to many like progress. Offsets. Produced at least 19 models at 250, 750, 1500, 2000, 2300, 2500, 2600, 3000, 3600, 3800, 4000 and 4500kW. There are ~40 utilities with sharp price competition in NL. Willem, forgive the pedantry, but its the second time you said it. Electric trains also use regenerative braking, similar to whats found in hybrid and electric cars. The best of EcoWatch right in your inbox. Good for saving valuable hydrocarbons for something more useful than burning them, and they really can supply all my electricity 24/7 that way. Does anyone even believe that? I am told Biogas is not actually allowed in our pipeline system. You buy green energy elsewhere to offset your fossil fuels. So technically, the government is not paying for the FITs.. They hope to reduce the energy used per passenger by a further 35% by 2020 compared with 2005. Sign up for our email newsletter! How Dutch and German train and bus firms are taking British taxpayers for a ride, Solar panel researchers investigate powering trains by bypassing grid, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. An extra live rail that has direct current flowing through it at all times. It doesnt add up, I would say about Euro 47 million is big money especially when you consider it`s for nothing.. The clip is in Dutch so set the captions to translate if you do not speak the language. During these periods wind generation in the neighboring Netherlands would also have fallen to low levels. if any Finnish electron reaches Netherlands most likely it goes via Baltic states, Poland and Germany. In this way, the Dutch railways aim to reduce the greatest negative environmental impact caused by CO2 in such a way that its demand actually contributes to the sustainable power generation in the Netherlands and Europe.. Belgium and Finland. HomerDixon.com. quite an amount of work youve done there, It doesnt add up ! Produced at least 12 models of 2000, 4000, 4500, and 5000kW. That means electrons traveling across international borders to help power the NS railway system come in some amount from wind power, but in much larger amounts from non-wind sources. More than 12% of the Netherland's electricity is generated from renewable sources, mainly biomass and waste (5% of the total) and wind (7% of the total). Some of the newer larger wind farms currently under construction are replacing smaller turbines previously installed at given locations. Sign up for our email newsletter! 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. The 600,000 Dutch that travel daily by train will now do so thanks purely to wind energy, with the national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) announcing that 100 percent of its. The real electricity they use is of course no more or less green than other companies on the same grid use. I struggled to find reliable figures to back that up, so I didnt want to repeat the claim here. I paid 1100 Euros/year for a 150 m2 house, at 1000 m altitude on the French alps, heating, hot water, everything included. There is, however, a problem. , I am told Biogas is not actually allowed in our pipeline system.. I think the trains in the Netherlands use 1.5kVDC anyway bet there are no wind turbines producing that directly. NS has signed a contract with Eneco to guarantee the supply of this electricity. The 129 MW Eneco Luchterduinen wind farm is located 23km off the coast between Zandvoort and Noordwijk cities in the Netherlands. With this, offshore wind energy makes an important contribution to achieving the increased climate target of 55% less CO2-emissions. According to Cleantechnica According to DutchNews.nl, there's currently a total of 2,200 wind turbines across the country. Claims that Dutch trains running entirely on wind power are way off track. 01-13-17 Dutch Railways' Electric Trains Now Run On 100% Wind Energy Now 1.2 million people per day can commute without raising their carbon footprint. [1], By December 2013, 1,975 wind turbines were operational on land in the Netherlands, with an aggregate capacity of 2,479 MW. Every electric train on the Dutch railways NS network now gets 100 per cent of its energy from wind energy. 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. NO. A NS train. 22 May 2018. It seems small compared with our renewables subsidies in the UK, which are of the order fo 150-450 times as big per MWh. Random House Canada. http://www.euanmearns.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/interconnectors.png. So while wind contributes about 7% to the Netherlands electricity generation it contributes about 11% to the countrys electricity consumption. In total, NS consumes around 1.2 TWh of electricity to power its trains. Hinkley C will have a footprint of 165 acres when operational and an equivalent footprint for onshore windturbines would be from 160,000 to 490,000 acres (dependent on power of turbines available) to produce the same power output over a year. There is a way of saying this, which characterises this behaviour, but I cant write it here because it is not politically correct too bad. Stations are heated using heat exchangers, green gas or green electricity. The Nuclear Humanist 1.75K subscribers 40 Dislike Share 814 views Jul 23, 2017 The Dutch Railway Corporation. In 2016, Dutch wind hit the headlines again, when a 700 MW offshore windfarm near the town of Borssele became the most cost-effective in the world. 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. 15ct/kWh, 100%hydro, no nuclear or gray labeled power bought for pumping. There are many reasons, of course, why NS would claim its trains run completely on wind power and even more reasons why many would celebrate this apparently breakthrough. Active 2020. The Netherland's national railway company, NS, has announced that all of its electric passenger trains are now 100 percent powered by wind energy. Rather they act like a component in an electric circuit. According to LJ Electrical only 2,231km of NSs total 3,223km of track is electrified): Figure 2: The Netherlands railway network. Probably not. Such as happened earlier this year in the UK when we had several days of around only 300MW of total metered wind power. These. In late 2015, the Dutch government announced its goal to power the country's electric trains entirely with wind power by 2018. One wind turbine running for an hour can power a train for 120 miles, the companies said. "Since 1 January, 100% of our trains are running on wind energy," said NS. You are not really concerned about the energy bills of the poor. Especially since there are no green electrons. This is hardly enough to make a big deal about. (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. Just fit smart controls where their systems draw power from the grid. The wholesale price of GOs seems to be a mere 0.36/MWh or so. The GoOs trade at a premium and help to subsidise the production. This type of fuel is considered to be climate-neutral, as it does not cause CO2 emissions. 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. Yes, they are called dwarves, or possibly hobbits. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. As Cleantechnica puts it: the GoO system allows for the transfer of the rights to call electricity green from those who actually generate renewable energy to those who dont but want to classify their power as such. More than 12% of the Netherland's electricity is generated from renewable sources, mainly biomass and waste (5% of the total) and wind (7% of the total). Of course, weve seen headlines of this type before. I cant help feeling that inexperienced power traders at NS will have been taken to the cleaners at the expense of passengers. [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. There is a DC interconnector (LitPol, 500 MW) between Lithuania and Poland now, and in addition the NordBalt (DC 700 MW) between Sweden and Lithuania. Train tickets for international journeys can be purchased from NS International. The next largest onshore wind farm is the Westereems wind farm located in Eemshaven in Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands. Supply from all generators is monitored in any case, all youd have to do is add up the More than wind and solar together right now. 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. heavyweather~ Im sure you can link us to sites which prove your point. . [16], In March 2018 the Dutch government announced that it will build between 2023 and 2030 several new windfarms with a total installed capacity of 7 gigawatt. For high-speed trains, overhead wires are the better choice. The Trains that run on Wind - BBC News 18,865 views Oct 17, 2017 This year, Dutch commuters ditched fossil fuels to power their country's trains on 100% wind energy - and it's a grand. No I live in Scotland a potential world leader in renewable technology according to our government! It is 100% powered by electric. * 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. 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. In total, NS consumes around 1.2 TWh of electricity to power its trains. [20] An additional 228 MW of capacity was installed at sea. The Netherlands national railway company, NS, has announced all of its electric passenger trains (not the freight trains) are now 100% powered by wind energy. 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. NS consumes 1.2 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity each year, which is the equivalent of 1% of the Netherlands' electricity consumption, or the total electricity consumption of all the households in Amsterdam. PV in Germany, and Energiewende in general, will go down in history as a useless waste of money, a financial disaster which will be used for decades to come as a bad example of ideology-driven energy policy. The energy comes from new wind farms in the Netherlands and surrounding countries - and it's a lot. And how does NS justify this lesser claim? How much of the Netherlands electricity is supplied by wind? With wind power usage in 2015 equal to 12.5 billion kWh, Dutch demand for wind power amply exceeds supply. There are very little poor people in Germany. Consumer unions help by auctioning for grouped members. So the standard is that 100% renewable utilities buy or produce same amount of 100% renewable electricity they sell. A book co-edited by Thomas Homer-Dixon contained a passage stating that windmills "might never generate as much energy as was invested in building [them]." Conductor rails carry lower voltages than overhead wires, although low is a relative concept. 5.3M views, 13K likes, 1.3K loves, 1.7K comments, 95K shares, Facebook Watch Videos from BrightVibes: Amazing news! 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. In addition, the use of conductor rails sets a speed limit on trains of about 160kph (100mph) above this, the metal contact blocks (called pickup shoes) can lose contact with the rail and result in a drop in power. Several commercial parties have now caught onto the PR value of claiming they are not getting government subsidies for their investment in renewable energy. One windmill running for an hour can power one train across about 200km (120 miles). The trains cant run as advertised on weak and intermittent wind power, and there is only one plug on the wall. As well as the technological problems discussed in this blog can we afford this destruction of our landscapes pursuing this RE dream. Were starting to see this ploy more often in recent years. And no facts will ever get in the way of a true believer . Ah, so the train really runs on smoke & mirrors. Their goal was to operate all NS trains on electricity produced by wind turbines by January 2018. So that is coal fired power not going into the Netherlands grid. 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 ). Green energy for train, bus and station In 2017, our trains in the Netherlands became the first in the world to run for 100% on wind energy, giving travellers the option of travelling without CO2 emissions. Grid connections for the Luchterduinen and Nordpoostpolder wind farms (locations approximate) are shown in black. But its a funny read. The Dutch railway folks have PPAs to buy energy only from renewable energy producers, and thus claim, our passenger trains run on renewable energy, but fail to add on a contract basis. Hughes did write that some windmills might not recoup their energy-construction costs, but he didn't assert, as the meme implied, that no windmills will ever generate as much energy as was invested in building them. Most wind power is produced in the province of Flevoland. This is the cause of the very bright, blue-white spark you sometimes see near the third rail, as well as flickering carriage lights. Not big money, even on 100TWh. In 2006, the Egmond aan Zee Offshore Wind Farm was built, consisting of 36 Vestas V90 3MW turbines, totaling 108 MW, sufficient to light 100,000 houses. (Figure 2: Note the dotted lines showing non-electrified track. Began operating in 1990. Why cant, errr sorry, why Dont you? Often only 100% renewable utilities are allowed to participate in the auctions. Its worth noting that it would be pointless to put wind turbines in poor locations, and its trivial, or meaningless, to say that a turbine would never pay back its embedded energy in a poor location. Produced at least 14 models of 100. Grid power in fact reflects the overall generation mix, which in the case of the Netherlands is dominantly gas and coal with only a small contribution from wind. "Carbon Shift: How Peak Oil and the Climate Crisis Will Change Canada (and Our Lives) Paperback." The US city of Philadelphia has taken regenerative braking to a new level though. However, everyone must have a contract to be authorized to draw energy from the grid; otherwise it would be stealing.