sustainable energy

Amsterdam's goal of reducing its CO2 emissions by 55 percent by 2030 is achievable, but will take a deal of effort, sustainability alderman Marieke van Doorninck said in a press release on Friday. The municipality plans to achieve this goal with measures like promoting solar panel and wind turbine installations, and getting homes off the natural gas network.

Efteling is looking to hit two birds with one stone in the completion of a new covered parking area - creating more and better parking spaces for guests, while also generating its own renewable energy. The parking lot will be completely covered in solar panels, creating individual carports for many of the amusement park's visitors.

The government is taking too little account of public health in its climate policy, according to a letter 10 regional GGDs sent to Minster Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate. The community health services call on the government to include them in the development of climate plans, AD reports based on the letter in its possession.

The Eindhoven University of Technology designed a sustainable alternative for the diesel and petrol generators used at festivals - a collapsible wind turbine that comes equipped with solar panels and a battery for energy storage. The GEM tower will be tested for the first time at the Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt, Belgium nine days from now, NOS reports.

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