green energy

Dutch grid managers expect that they will not be able to afford their part of the energy transition from 2030. They receive too little money, because the Dutch authority on consumers and markets ACM wants to keep the rates low, Enexis, Alliander and Stedin said to the Financieele Dagblad on Monday.

Crowdfunding, crowd financing, and crowd investing in the Netherlands showed strong growth of 31 percent last year compared to 2016 figures when 170 million euros was raised. A total of 223 million euros was raised through Dutch crowd initiatives last year, which financed over 5,300 separate actions, according to an analysis from CrowdfundingCijfers.nl

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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