That would power a large proportion of all of the households in Amsterdam**. What the Netherlands gets when it imports it is the energy mix on the German grid. Ive included a (slightly-edited) mini-excerpt from my recent book, Science and the City, to explain: Electric locomotives dont have conventional engines. Does anyone even believe that? To aver otherwise displays ignorance or deception. The 600,000 Dutch that travel daily by train will now do so thanks purely to wind energy, with the national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) announcing that 100 percent of its. http://www.litgrid.eu/index.php/sistemos-duomenys/79. Three strikes. Figure 1: The Netherlands generation mix 2000-2013. How much wind? The historical land of windmills is leading the charge in wind energy development. If not, Im sure their stranded customers would be happy to explain it to them. The Trains that run on Wind - BBC News 18,865 views Oct 17, 2017 This year, Dutch commuters ditched fossil fuels to power their country's trains on 100% wind energy - and it's a grand. The role of the third (or conductor) rail is to ensure that the electricity is always directly available, so its installed alongside, or in between, the pair of running rails (Keep an eye out for it when youre next on an underground train). [1] In 2019, the wind turbines provided the country with 12% of its electricity demand during the year, a figure that is growing but somewhat below the average of 15% that wind power provides across the whole of the EU's electricity consumption. How Dutch and German train and bus firms are taking British taxpayers for a ride, Solar panel researchers investigate powering trains by bypassing grid, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. So that is coal fired power not going into the Netherlands grid. The Dutch railway folks have PPAs to buy energy only from renewable energy producers, and thus claim, our passenger trains run on renewable energy, but fail to add on a contract basis. You still technically get your power from the electric company, but you pay little to nothing for it because you are supplying them electricity. Where I post my arguments on various things climate-related, belief that a 100% renewable-powered train can and does exist is ubiquitous. Good for saving valuable hydrocarbons for something more useful than burning them, and they really can supply all my electricity 24/7 that way. Ah, so the train really runs on smoke & mirrors. As Hughes observed, his point was that "the concept of net energy is crucial if we want to find a policy that will see us through the Energy Sustainability Dilemma," not that windmills should be eschewed for using up more energy than they ever create. How Sustainable and Ethical Is the Tuna at Your Supermarket? Produced at least 12 models of 2000, 4000, 4500, and 5000kW. one of their national railway companies, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), 700 MW offshore windfarm near the town of Borssele. Either figure comfortably exceeds the amount of electricity NS uses to power its electric trains, which is variously quoted as either 1.2 or 1.4TWh/year. Dutch trains to be wind-powered from 2018. It's a bit of smoke and mirrors but it helps to subside more expensive forms of generation. If it was based on the former there would a strong possibility that these companies could be oversubscribed with customers who may not receive true renewable energy when the wind does not blow. This is about two-thirds of the system. "Since 1 January, 100% of our trains are running on wind energy," said NS spokesman,. Half of this electricity comes from the Netherlands, and the other half is imported from Sweden, Finland, and Belgium. I am told Biogas is not actually allowed in our pipeline system. . As of October2022[update], wind power in the Netherlands has an installed capacity of 8,304 MW, 29.6% of which is based offshore. Putting these numbers together indicates that only 10-15% of the electricity consumed annually by NSs electric trains will come from wind, with the rest a mixture that includes mostly Dutch gas and coal plus a small amount of Belgian and German coal, nuclear and lignite and maybe even a little German solar. Rather they act like a component in an electric circuit. The electrons vibrate at 60 cycles per second, 60 Hz, and travel at less than 0.1 inch/second. * Just an FYI, this official infographic shows that the scheme saves 1.4 billion kWh of electricity, which they say is the same as whats used by ALL of Amsterdams residents. I happen to know a little about the Dutch grid and its power networks: interconnectors to other countries have long been bottlenecks and monopolising capacity on them has proved to be quite profitable in the past to those who trade electricity in more than one country. You make one good point here which is that France has cheap electricity but expensive heating. But you seem happy to gloss over the fact that Germanys cheap power comes from coal, nuclear and Russian gas. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/5329/Bothi_BEEThesis.pdf;sequence=1, When wind power is fed into a grid it becomes inextricably mixed with all the vibrating electrons from other generation sources to the point where there is no way of knowing where any power taken from the grid came from.. When challenged on its claim, NS clarified that only the electrified portion of its system runs completely on wind power. Physically it makes no difference as you say, but as HeavyWeather pointed out above my money is now going to fund reactors not Energiewende, so Im happy. Wind turbines feed electricity into the grid and the electric company credits them for the electricity. It seems small compared with our renewables subsidies in the UK, which are of the order fo 150-450 times as big per MWh. Well, it actually claims that only the electrified portion runs on 100% wind. Pingback: Antidotes were hard to find this week as one cheering message after another was debunked only Positive News was buoyant | C 3000: antidote to gloom, Pingback: International Energy Agency Electricity Production Statistics for OECD Countries 2014 2016 | Blogging about energy and transitioning to clean energy, Click image to download live UK grid data, Per Capita Energy Consumption North America, Per Capita Energy Consumption South America, Per Capita Energy Consumption Former Soviet Union, Per Capita Energy Consumption Middle East, Per Capita Energy Consumption Asia Pacific, Refinery Output and Product Demand North America, Refinery Output and Product Demand Europe, Refinery Output and Product Demand Middle East, Refinery Output and Product Demand Asia Pacific, newly built wind farms in . The other half comes from newly built wind farms in . The largest wind farm in the Netherlands is Noordoostpolder with a capacity of 429 MW. Money doesnt matter to me. The comment about T1s was meant to be a wry tomayto vs tomarto thing which probably didnt work as an explanation of why I get pedantic. It is a pity that they are allowing so many onshore/offshore wind turbines to blight our green and pleasant land and sea. That would force other trains to halt. The historical land of windmills is leading . All renewable energy gets paid the FIT out of the so-called SDE budget. However, early successes in rolling out the clean energy program . When wind power is fed into a grid it becomes inextricably mixed with all the vibrating electrons from other generation sources to the point where there is no way of knowing where any power taken from the grid came from. [10] [11] [12], 2015 In fact, he allowed that a windmill situated at a good location could pay back the energy costs of creating it in under three years, but that aspect was omitted from the memed version of his quote: The concept of net energy must be applied to renewable sources of energy, such as windmills and photovoltaics. In August 2015, a meme posted to the Google+ group "The Secret Society of Anti-AGW-ACC Cultism," an organization that claims climate change is a hoax, reproduced the words allegedly written by Thomas Homer-Dixon, the Associate Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation, on the subject of windmills. "So we in fact reached our goal a year earlier than planned," spokesman Ton Boon told AFP. The truth is that its impossible to determine the source of electrons actually moving NS trains down the track. Julian Turner gets the inside track on the unique collaboration from Michel Kerkhof, account manager at Eneco. Even cheap electricity doesnt change anything. But how does NS know the power it imports is wind? RE fans should understand that present mainstream RE technologies ( mostly PV and wind) require considerable real estate and in our small island one cannot travel very far without having a wind farm in view. Thanks for the correction Lars. By tapping into both domestic and foreign sources of wind power, it [ensures] that there is always sufficient green power available on the grid for rail companies, even if the wind is not blowing, the company explained. The Same Reason You Would Study Anything Else, The (Mostly) Quantum Physics Of Making Colors, This Simple Thought Experiment Shows Why We Need Quantum Gravity, How The Planck Satellite Forever Changed Our View Of The Universe. [2] The Dutch are trying to meet the EU-set target of producing 14% of total energy use from renewable sources by 2020, and 16% by 2023. http://ast.lv/eng/power_system/current_situation_in_power_system/state_of_power_system/ During these periods wind generation in the neighboring Netherlands would also have fallen to low levels. It is a special fund used by the Dutch government to make investments in renewable energy profitable. if any Finnish electron reaches Netherlands most likely it goes via Baltic states, Poland and Germany. And given that the company carries 600,000 people per day, the amount of electricity they need isnt trivial around 1.2 billion kWh of electricity a year. The Dutch government is looking to ramp up the nations share of renewable energy from 4 percent in 2014 to 16 percent in 2023. Everyone drawing energy from the grid is equal, on a physical basis. At least they are investing in renewable energy. Bolthouse Farms Sued After Smoothie With 100% Fruit Juice Tests Positive for PFAS, EPA Announces $27 Billion Fund to Help Low-Income and Disadvantaged Communities Transition to Renewable Energy, Derailed Train Cars in Ohio Were Not Labeled Hazardous, Wind Turbine Giant Proposes New York Factory That Would Create 420 Jobs and $500M in Local Investments. These include the 580km NorNed submarine cable (700 MW) link to Norway, the 1,000 MW BritNed cable link to the United Kingdom and the COBRA cable link to Denmark (700 MW). Do Dutch trains run on Wind? So, as you can see, your silly view of the frrrench domestic heating habits are wrong, probably based on indoctrination from greenpiss or the like. Web. Rail networks source this electricity from the grid, and just like for our homes, its transmitted to them via high-voltage lines. NS claims 100% wind power because it has a contract with various wind farms to produce enough energy to power its rail system, but this is just an accounting transaction, writes author Roger Andrews. Especially since there are no green electrons. Whats the trick? Temporarily, they might even have a surplus to sell. When "green" energy is generated the producer can sell a Guarantee of Origin certificate for the amount generated. So pick your choice The Netherlands national railway company, NS, has announced all of its electric passenger trains (not the freight trains) are now 100% powered by wind energy. Windmills have historically played a major part in the Netherlands by providing an alternative to water driven mills. These sites are also surveyed centrally by the government allowing developers to avoid costly and multiple surveys.[11]. A book co-edited by Thomas Homer-Dixon contained a passage stating that windmills "might never generate as much energy as was invested in building [them]." The evidence speaks for itself. Earlier this week, one of their national railway companies, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), announced that, since 1st January, every single one of its electric trains have been running on energy harvested from wind. remarkably consists of wind turbines with just 2 blades, manufactured by Nedwind, the 18 turbines have a combined nominal power of 18 MW.[30]. All wind amd solar energy gets a hefty FIT tariff in the Netherlands, intended to guarantee profitability of the energy investment over the long term (even if the electricity market price goes negative, for example). Fossil fuel-fired power plants produced over 80% of the electricity in the Netherlands, mainly natural gas (42%) and coal (35%). What happens where there is insufficient wind for the required duration to powerup the batteries? Even the two Dutch wind farms with which NS contracts directly for wind power, Noordoostpolder and Luchterduinen, are tied generally to the Dutch grid and not tied directly into the NS rail system. [5] In 2020 wind power provided 11.54% of the Dutch electricity generation (see table above) while solar power provided an additional 7.25% for a combined 18.79% - easily meeting the target without taking other renewable sources into account, even though the target for onshore wind capacity was not met. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. Dutch trains now run on green, renewable energy (Image courtesy of Groenetrain/NS/Eneco). There is a DC interconnector (LitPol, 500 MW) between Lithuania and Poland now, and in addition the NordBalt (DC 700 MW) between Sweden and Lithuania. It seems that NS may be outsourcing costs as well as power. Surprisingly, even the electricity is sourced from windmill electric generato. It`s a scam. This is a BETA experience. In 2006, the Egmond aan Zee Offshore Wind Farm was built, consisting of 36 Vestas V90 3MW turbines, totaling 108 MW, sufficient to light 100,000 houses. In 2017, our trains in the Netherlands became the first in the world to run for 100% on wind energy, giving travellers the option of travelling without CO2 emissions. People making this claim are simply propagandists. The energy comes from new wind farms in the Netherlands and surrounding countries - and it's a lot. Only the Guardian has seen fit to publish a correction: An earlier version said all Dutch trains were now 100% powered by wind-generated electricity, according to the national railway company NS. That would meet approximately 75% of the countries electricity needs. The turbines supply enough energy to power 2.4 million households. This passage was written by David Hughes. The rationale is: If the Dutch railways sourced 100% of the 1.4 tWh of energy they needed each year from within the Netherlands, this would decrease availability and increase prices of green power for other parties. [37] Other large wind farms are located in Delfzijl-zuid (43 MW),[30] Lelystad (46 MW), Terneuzen, (Koegorspolder, 44 MW), and Biddinghuizen (WP Kubbeweg, 34 MW). Only a small fraction of the power delivered to its trains actually comes from wind.. The farm was dismantled after 22 years service in 2016. And meanwhile the Netherlands electrified railways continue to be powered dominantly by fossil fuel electricity. Can Renewable Portfolio Standards make RE Work? When I travel, I just plug in my electric razor, which automatically converts it. Putting these numbers together indicates that only 10-15% of the electricity consumed annually by NSs electric trains will come from wind, with the rest a mixture that includes mostly Dutch gas and coal plus a small amount of Belgian and German coal, nuclear and lignite and maybe even a little German solar, Andrews explains. However the electricity is delivered to the train, once its there, it is used to power lights, and air-conditioning, as well as the traction motors, which are what turn the trains wheels. The Dutch government is looking to ramp up the nation's share of renewable energy from 4 percent in 2014 to 16 percent in 2023. As a retired telecomms engineer Im glad not to be repeatedly telling folks from the US that T1 is not a global standard any more! So while wind contributes about 7% to the Netherlands electricity generation it contributes about 11% to the countrys electricity consumption. 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