The province of Gelderland will only use green gas and sustainable electricity from next year, as part of a contract concluded with energy providers Greenchoice and Vattenfall, De Gelderlander reports.
The province's decision to switch to entirely green energy from next year coincides with Vattenfall's decision to stop developing biogas plants in the Netherlands.
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.
Generating electricity from biomass creates more greenhouse gas emissions than coal and gas, according to a yet-to-be-published study by DNV GL consultancy commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management that newspaper AD has in its possession.
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.
Researchers at TU Eindhoven and TNO were awarded an European grant of 7 million euros to further develop their heat battery. Their battery stores sustainably generated energy to heat homes even on cloudy and windless days. This can be a significant step towards reaching the goal of getting all Dutch homes off the natural gas network by 2050, according to TNO.
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.
The city of Amsterdam received the go-ahead to substantially increase the amount of wind energy generated in the municipality. The Dutch capital announced plans on Wednesday to add windmills generating an additional 50 megawatts of power by 2026.
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.
Environmental organization Milieudefensie is filing a lawsuit against Shell in an effort to force the Dutch oil and gas company to adjust its policy to prevent further damage to the climate, Milieudefensie announced in a press conference at Shell's former headquarters in Amsterdam, ANP reports.
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.
Last year the Netherlands generated 10 percent more energy from renewable sources than in the year before, Statistics Netherlands reported on Friday. Despite this increase, the Netherlands is still far from its goal to be CO2-neutral by 2050.
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."
The Netherlands will be dependent on natural gas imports up to six years sooner than the government expects, according to a study by research institute TNO. The researchers call on the government to take timely measures to make sure that households don't end up without gas, NOS reports.
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.
From September 1st homeowners in Amsterdam can apply for a subsidy to remove their home from the gas connection. The Dutch capital aims to be gas-free by 2050 in order to drastically reduce CO2 emissions in the city. That means that 350 thousand homes must move from natural gas to sustainable heating and electric cooking, Het Parool reports.
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.
The four largest cities in the Netherlands, united under G4, want the Dutch government to invest 35 billion euros into sustainability and infrastructure in the Randstad. The G4's plans span 15 years in which time some 1 million "green" homes will be built and accessibility to the city regions will be greatly improved, Het Parool reports.
The Mayors of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht met with Prime Minister Mark Rutte a few weeks ago to present their plan, Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb confirmed to the newspaper.
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.
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.
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 700-megawatt wind farm set for construction in the North Sea will cost the Dutch government 2.7 billion euros less in subsidy than initially planned. Construction of the project at the Borssele site, 22 kilometers from the Zeeland shoreline, was awarded to Danish firm DONG Energy, Economic Affairs minister Henk Kamp announced on Tuesday.
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.
The Netherlands, Germany Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden and Norway are teaming up to research technologies to generate renewable energy in the North Sea and to plan the construction of offshore wind turbines. These "North Sea countries" will ratify their agreements at the Energy Council in Luxembourg on Tuesday
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
