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 . Dutch electric trains are running on 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours of wind energy supplied by sustainable energy supplier, Eneco. So even if this claim were true, it would require exponentially more windmills and/or solar panels to cover any significant portion of the continental United States. I read about them and saw a documentary film about them. ) can ever bring them off balance They dont understand, but they believe ! Its production also does not use any natural raw materials or food production resources. This year the country is due to start operating a 600-megawatt offshore wind farm, called Gemini. [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). So pick your choice Acquired by Lagerway in 1998. Passing through the gates without traveling, Forgetting to check in or out and requesting refunds, Sustainable accessibility of the Netherlands, More information about NS buses that run on HVO. Berlin Neighborhood to Experiment With Eliminating Parking Spaces, High PFAS Levels in Norwegian Arctic Ice Pose New Risk to Wildlife, Report: London Ultra Low Emissions Zone Succeeded in Curbing Harmful Air Pollution, Studies Find Louisiana Government Helped Create Cancer Alley, Prestigious Engineering Prize Awarded to Pioneering Solar Team, Leaked Video Shows Sediment Release in Deep-Sea Mining Test, After Record-Breaking 2022, China Told to Brace for Another Year of Weather Extremes, Seed Saving 101: Everything You Need to Know. Rod, you must live in Albania E.ON wanted to put my tariff up from 9.79p to 13.87p. Plus, it turns out that about half the electricity NS uses to power its rail system comes from outside of the Netherlands. Two of the models are still under production. 2015 was a record year for new installations in the Netherlands with 586 MW added of which 180 MW were offshore. When challenged on its claim, NS clarified that only the electrified portion of its system runs completely on wind power. Homer-Dixon did not write this viral quote, but he did comment on it in a May 2018 blog post entitled: "No . Its worth remembering that data on wind and solar is available here: http://mylly.hopto.me/windineurope/wind_solar_20_countries_raw.zip. If you want to be generous to NS, you can say that the BritNed interconnector is definitely being fed by the coal fired Maasvlakte power stations when it is delivering 1GW to the UK, because theyre right next door to the HVDC converters. http://ast.lv/eng/power_system/current_situation_in_power_system/state_of_power_system/ But there is no guarantee that the unfilled demand will be met by renewables, and in any event the 1.2-1.4TWh/year consumed by NS represents barely more than 1% of the Netherlands annual electricity consumption and a totally negligible fraction of European consumption. Snopes did not find evidence that Germany was experiencing a "total collapse" in wind and solar energy. That is, a windmill could spin until it falls apart and never generate as much energy as was invested in building it. Some of the nations that supply power to NS such as Germany, Belgium, and Finland, do generate wind power, but only in modest amounts. In this video, NS CEO Roger van Boxtel is humorously strapped to a windmill blade as he touts his companys latest renewable energy achievement. OK, these days its less than the bandwidth to your mobile, but mumble years ago it was the real deal. I did not say wind energy is Idiot Power.". Thatd give us a consumption figure for the city of around 1.5 billion kWh. http://www.djtelectricaltraining.co.uk/downloads/50Hz-Frequency.pdf. NS first announced their target for a wind-powered train fleet back in 2015, but they've hit their target a year earlier than planned - way ahead of their 2018 goal. The Dutch rail network will run entirely on renewable wind energy by 2018 under a new contract signed by power company Eneco and energy procurement cooperative VIVENS. Just whatever serves your agenda. But you seem happy to gloss over the fact that Germanys cheap power comes from coal, nuclear and Russian gas. http://elering.ee/cross-border-physical-flows/ You are not really concerned about the energy bills of the poor. A two-megawatt windmill contains 260 tonnes of steel requiring 170 tonnes of coking coal and 300 tonnes of iron ore, all mined, transported and produced by hydrocarbons. That's something. Active 2016. Companies that want to claim that they run on green energy then just have to buy enough GoOs to cover their energy demand. So technically, the government is not paying for the FITs.. One thing I should have mentioned in the post is why NS doesnt get all its wind power from Netherlands wind farms. Over the course of this year the average will be around 11%, equal to wind powers share of the Netherlands annual grid electricity consumption. Apart from the first rather obvious problems, anyone with the most basic understanding of electrical enrgy, as taught before 16 at school, would immediately know this was a wholly untrue technical assertion. How much wind? The Netherland's national railway company, NS, has announced that all of its electric passenger trains are now 100 percent powered by wind energy. The truth is that its impossible to determine the source of electrons actually moving NS trains down the track. [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. Figure 1: The Netherlands generation mix 2000-2013. 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. As his statements were presented in that meme, Homer-Dixon appeared to have asserted that windmills never produce as much energy as is expended in building them: The quotations selectively employed in the meme were taken from Homer-Dixon's 2009 book Carbon Shift: How Peak Oil and the Climate Crisis Will Change Canada (and Our Lives). The European high voltage grid connects Finland with Sweden but doesnt go through the Baltic States. This is a BETA experience. For high-speed trains, overhead wires are the better choice. NS would only care for the environment as a PR stunt, not for the betterment of the planet. The next largest onshore wind farm is the Westereems wind farm located in Eemshaven in Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands. The construction of these wind farms along with others in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Finland helped NS and Eneco to hit their target so far ahead of schedule. As of October2022[update], wind power in the Netherlands has an installed capacity of 8,304 MW, 29.6% of which is based offshore. The company is also looking for a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. These sites are also surveyed centrally by the government allowing developers to avoid costly and multiple surveys.[11]. I am told Biogas is not actually allowed in our pipeline system. . N.p., 13 November 2000. There are many reasons, of course, why NS would claim its trains run completely on wind power and even more reasons why many would celebrate this apparently breakthrough. "Since 1 January, 100% of our trains are running on wind energy," said NS. The real electricity they use is of course no more or less green than other companies on the same grid use. The commercials know that the public will probably think that the commercial parties are spending out of the goodness of their hearts, to save the planet. Since Lithuania has a chronic power shortage the flow normally goes North-South. 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. Yes, they are called dwarves, or possibly hobbits. "Carbon Shift: How Peak Oil and the Climate Crisis Will Change Canada (and Our Lives) Paperback." Harried Dutch commuters may not be entirely cognisant of the fact . I have no wind records for the Netherlands but P.F. Consumers in NL can choose suppliers that deliver 100% renewable, or 100% wind, or 100% dutch generated wind, etc. I believe in low carbon power, just that I also believe in security of supply, and with wind, or solar or tidal, you cant get it. This energy is directly traceable to individual wind farms, because we use the GVO European Certification System. The Dutch government has set a target of 6,000 MW nameplate capacity of onshore wind power by 2020 (not met, as per the data above) and 4,450 MW of offshore wind power by 2023. (CONTINUED), London Underground trains use two conductor rails to manage their electricity needs (Image courtesy [+] of BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images), In all cases, this regenerated electricity can be returned to the power line via the conductor rail. Dutch electricity company Eneco won a tender offered by NS two years ago and the two companies signed a 10-year deal setting January 2018 as the date by which all NS trains should run on wind energy. 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. 150, 200, 225, 300, 500, 750, 850 and 1300kW. The pickup shoes do occasionally lose contact anyway, albeit very briefly, at track junctions. Half of this electricity comes from the Netherlands, and the other half is imported from Sweden, Finland, and Belgium. According to Railway Technology because it has a: green energy contract thought to be among the largest yet signed in Europe between power supplier Eneco and VIVENS, an energy procurement joint venture comprising Netherlands Railways (NS), Veolia, Arriva, Connexxion and rail freight firms, and because, NS and Eneco have carefully selected a list of wind farms that fulfil their criteria of being traceable, sustainable or renewable and additional, or new, and because, This partnership ensures that new investments can be made in even newer wind farms, which will increase the share of renewable energy. See the table below for the current situation. Many of these smaller companies were eventually acquired by the larger wind turbine manufactures such as Vestas, Siemens and Lagerwey. TL;DR Dutch trains run on natural gas and coal power, not wind power. [5] The first of these, the 429 MW Noordoostpolder wind farm was already partially deployed by year end 2015 whilst the 600 MW Gemini offshore wind farm was commissioned in 2017. http://electronicdesign.com/power/google-s-renewable-energy-plan-what-it-seems, Telling fibs has become so fashionable that everyone and his train or server wants to be in on it. The claim by the Dutch railway network, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), is almost entirely a sleight of hand. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, Press J to jump to the feed. What Was It Like When The Universe First Created More Matter Than Antimatter? First some details on the Netherlands electricity sector. The 113,3 Twh exported far exceeds the actual exports of course, but were good business for the power companies selling their power twice. When "green" energy is generated the producer can sell a Guarantee of Origin certificate for the amount generated. There are ~40 utilities with sharp price competition in NL. I dont mind buying 100% renewable energy for my house ( I have got a small 6kw wind turbine which has supplied me for over 10 years) if it is the same price as normal electricity but I would not pay a premium for it as some suppliers charge. These newer and larger wind farms are making use of some of the largest wind turbines available, in particular in the case of Noordoostpolder the Enercon E-126 7500kW wind turbine, the largest onshore turbine available at that time. (Figure 2: Note the dotted lines showing non-electrified track. 22 May 2018. UK Government to Announce New Energy Policies, Waking into our new volatile age of oil prices. The farm was dismantled after 22 years service in 2016. If its a less busy line, some of the electricity is stored in batteries on the train. Claims that Dutch trains running entirely on wind power are way off track. A two-megawatt windmill contains 260 tonnes of steel requiring 170 tonnes of. 2015 was a record year for the countrys wind industry according to the Global Wind Energy Council, turbines capable of generating 586 MW of electricity were installed between January and December. Whats the trick? 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. In this way, the Dutch railways aim to reduce the greatest negative environmental impact caused by CO2 in such a way that its demand actually contributes to the sustainable power generation in the Netherlands and Europe.. You only have to see their numbersbto know. The energy comes from new wind farms in the Netherlands and surrounding countries - and it's a lot. The only way we could get close would be to take this measure of the citys population (813, 562) and this value for electricity consumption per person (1800 kWh). It becomes inextricably mixed with all the electromagnetic waves of the other. But if youre reading this and thinking How can trains run on electricity?, fear not. Many small scale wind farms exist throughout the Netherlands which bear testament to earlier models of wind turbines and lesser known manufacturers which provided a range of niche products, ranging in size and power output. Headlines like this make people feel good. What happens where there is insufficient wind for the required duration to powerup the batteries? Homer-Dixon, Thomas. 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. Because Eneco, which contracts to supply NS with wind power, gets a Guarantee of Origin from the exporter under which the exporter confirms that the power came from wind and assigns the rights to it to NS. Per Physics 101, once electricity is fed into the grid it travels, as electromagnetic waves, at near the speed of light on un-insulated wires, i.e. Ah, so the train really runs on smoke & mirrors. NS is the main public train in the Netherlands. Most wind power is produced in the province of Flevoland. [5] This will contribute towards the Dutch target of 14% renewable energy use out of total energy use by 2020[10] and 16% by 2023. Their original goal was to transition the trains to 100 percent renewable energy by 2018, but that target was moved up after reaching 75 percent in 2016. It is just another way for RE politicians to bamboozle the lay public and keep the green mythology alive. On-board energy storage systems, such as batteries; An overhead wire that the train connects to; or. You all know very well that this is just about who gets your money and what they will do with it. I cant help feeling that inexperienced power traders at NS will have been taken to the cleaners at the expense of passengers. Instead of trains recovering energy for their own use, any excess power is directed to a centralized bank of lithium-ion batteries. Thus, all of NE has the same energy mix, i.e., there is not one mix for VT, another for NH, or one mix for the Netherlands, another for Germany. 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. The fun would be that trains would soon be blocking the lines as power production fell. That would force other trains to halt. I do not know why this is, maybe a different ethane ratio? 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