As of January 1st next year, all airports in the Schiphol Group will run entirely on sustainable energy generated in the Netherlands. The airport company signed a long-term agreement to this effect with electricity provider Eneco, ANP reports.
The Schiphol group covers the airports Schiphol, Eindhoven, Rotterdam and Lelystad. Together the airports use about 200 gigawatt hours of power every year. That's comparable to the consumption of 60 thousand households.
Solar park Sunport, the largest solar park in the Netherlands, will help power Google's data center. Power company Eneco and Google signed an agreement to that effect, Eneco announced on Friday. Both the solar park and data center are located in Eemshaven, NU.nl reports.
Sunport consists of 123 thousand solar panels on 30 hectares of ground. It generates about 27 gigawatt hours of solar power annually, enough to power 7,700 homes for a year.
Utrecht will soon be the site of the largest green energy storage in the Benelux. A gigantic Tesla battery will be placed on the Jaarbeurs that will store energy from solar panels. The battery is intended to charge electric cars in the Jaarbeurs complex, Financieele Dagblad reports.
The Jaarbeurs Utrecht, grid manager Stedin, energy provider Scholt Energy and charging point developer LomboXnet all invested in this project. The contracts with Tesla have already been signed, according to the newspaper.
The newest and so far largest Dutch wind farm opened some 85 kilometers off the coast of Groningen on Monday afternoon. Gemini consists of 150 wind mills, over two fields each covering an area of 34 square kilometers. The mills are able to generate enough clean energy to power 785 thousand households, NOS reports.
Construction of this wind farm started in 2015. It cost a total of about 28 billion euros. According to contractors Siemens and Van Oord, the Gemini Park reduces Dutch CO2 emissions by 1.25 million tons per year.
Eindhoven company Tidal Bridge and construction company Strukton are working on a bridge between the east-Indonesian islands of Flores and Adonara that will change the lives of half a million people living on the islands. The 800 meter long floating bridge is equipped with turbines underneath that will generate a steady supply of electricity to the islands, Eindhovens Dagblad reports.
The poorest households in the Netherlands pay relatively the most on the climate policy, according to a study commissioned by the Dutch Friends of the Earth, Milieudefensie. The poorest households pay over 5 percent of their income to the climate policy, wihile the richest 10 percent of Dutch pay only 1.5 percent, Nieuwsuur reports.
Dutch electricity grid operator TenneT plans to invest 25 billion euros into green energy infrastructure on land and sea over the next decade, the company announced with its annual results on Wednesday. One of the company's plans is building one or more artificial islands on the North Sea to be the connection between the mainland and thousands of wind turbines far offshore, ANP reports.
The Netherlands' largest solar farm officially opened on Thursday. The farm in Delfzijl consists of some 123 thousand solar panels and can produce 30 megawatts of power. It is expected to power some 10,000 homes, NU.nl reports.
The solar park is called Sunport Delfzijl is about as large as 65 football fields. It took German group Wirsol about a year to build.
Dutch petroleum company NAM singed up with the Transition Coalition - a coalition of about 50 companies working to accelerate the Netherlands' transition to renewable energy sources, NAM director Gerald Schotman announced in his New Year speech, ANP reports.
"As far as I am concerned, the transition can, if not must, be more ambitious", Schotman said.
The government wants the Netherlands to be nearly CO2 emissions free by 2050, according to Economic Minister Henk Kamp's Energy Agenda. The Agenda contains a number of measures to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and encourage sustainable living. Environmental organizations call the plan unambitious, NU.nl reports.
Marjan van Loon, CEO of Shell Nederland, wants to use natural gas revenues from Groningen for a "delta plan" for the transition to green energy and for the local economy, she said in an Interview with the Financieele Dagblad. Though she adds that the Netherlands must continue gas extraction for as long as possible.
The Netherlands used more energy from renewable sources, such as biomass and solar power, in 2015. Last year 5.8 percent of the total energy consumed came from renewable sources, compared to 5.5 percent in 2014 and 4.8 percent in 2013, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Thursday.
Solar panels may soon be installed on the rooftops of 19 above-ground subway stations in Amsterdam. The goal is to save on energy and reduce the subway's CO2 emissions
Dutch banks ING and Rabobank jointly invested 218.6 million euros in Russian coal firm SUEK in February of this year, according to bank watchdog Eerlijke Banwijzer. The watchdog finds the investments "appalling" and calls on both banks to stop investing in coal producers.
Hundreds of wind turbines in the Netherlands are operating at a loss and are in danger of being demolished. The main cause is the very low energy prices, which mean that the maintaining the turbines cost more than what the generated energy bring in, the Financieele Dagblad reports based on own research.
Over the past year the solar-powered Ikea store in Zwolle used 30 percent less grid energy than the average use in other Ikea stores, the store announced. The store aims to be completely energy neutral by 2020.
The Ministry of Defense wants to reduce its use of fossil fuels like oil and gas by 70 percent in 2050. Increased dependency on more fuel cause problems during operations, Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert writes in her Operational Energy Strategy
Dutch data centers, hosting companies and other internet service providers are demanding more energy security, concerned about the reliability of power supply in the Netherlands with the switch over to green energy. Michiel Steltman, director of Digital Infrastructure Netherlands, thinks that the potential of nuclear power should be considered in the decision making to ensure long-term stability
Placing windmills near the Dutch coast will have very little to no effect on tourism in the affected beach areas. Between "0 and 10" percent of tourists and day-visitors will stay away because of windmills on he horizon, according to a study done by Decisio on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs
Energy companies in the Netherlands do not generate enough green energy to meet the demand in their own country. Green energy generated in the Netherlands only account for a quarter of the Dutch demand, according to figures from Certiq.
Large Dutch cities advocate for sustainability and promises to use more sustainable power, in practice they still largely opt for cheaper coal power
The University of Amsterdam and Hogeschool van Amsterdam will be placing 2,563 solar panels on the roofs of five buildings next year, the UvA announced on Friday.
The Netherlands plans to give 50 million people in poor countries access to green energy in the coming years, Minister Lilianne Ploumen of Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade wrote to the Tweede Kamer
The number of hybrid cars in the Netherlands rose by a fourfold between 2009 and 2014, reports Statistic Netherlands (CBS). There are currently 156 thousand hybrid vehicles in the country. In 2014, 30 thousand vehicles were purchased, with three-quarters of those purchased by a business.
