sustainable energy

Former Environment Minister Ed Nijpels presented the Netherlands' Climate Agreement to Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate on Tuesday. This concerns the agreement in broad terms, with some concrete goals set and agreements made. The rest will be worked out and finalized later this year. The aim is to implement the Climate Agreement in 2019, NOS and NU.nl report.

The Dutch government plans to build three more offshore wind farms, in addition to five new wind farms already agreed upon in the Energy Agreement. The government wants the total offshore wind farms to produce 40 percent of the Netherlands' current electricity consumption by 2030. 

Dutch energy company Nuon signed a "mega agreement" with Microsoft on supplying wind energy to the American software giant. Nuon is building a wind farm in Wieringermeerpolder to supply the nearby Microsoft data center with power, ANP reports.

The wind farm will initially include more than 80 windmills, which will exclusively be used by Microsoft. Nuon is spending around 200 million euros on the construction of the wind farm. How much the Dutch company will make out of this deal, was not revealed. "At Microsoft's request, we make no statements about that."

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. 

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.

A group of Dutch multinational companies signed a pact and started a "broad movement" against "encroaching populism and negativism", two representatives of the movement said to Financieele Dagblad on Saturday. This movement will not only fight negativity, but also boost the Dutch economy, they said.

Small new energy firms in the Netherlands are much greener than their larger counterparts, according to the annual sustainability study. Of the five large energy companies, only Eneco scored a "sufficient" in the study

A massive 167 Dutch municipalities are still using coal power for their own electricity use, such as for powering street lighting, traffic lights and municipal buildings, according to a study done by SOMO on behalf of Greenpeace Netherlands.

Opposition parties in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, wants to stop mining shale gas for as long as the agreements in the energy agreement are in force

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 Dutch electricity supply has become dirtier over the past year, instead of greener. The main reason for this is the low coal prices. Energy companies burned 5 percent more coal than in 2013, increasing the share of coal-fired power generation from 24 percent to 29 percent.