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. Sign up for our email newsletter! For NS to use only wind power from wind farms to power its rail system the wind farms must be connected directly to NSs railways. [61], In 2008, a second, somewhat larger offshore wind farm was built: the Princess Amalia Wind Farm, consisting of 60 Vestas V80 2MW turbines totaling 120 MW, sufficient to power 125,000 homes and help the Netherlands cut 225,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. "Since 1 January, 100% of our trains are running on wind energy," said NS spokesman,. The new Zuidwester site at the wind farm will have just 12 turbines and a total nameplate capacity of 90 MW. one of their national railway companies, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), 700 MW offshore windfarm near the town of Borssele. But its a funny read. [21], In November 2011, the Dutch government decided to no longer fund 6 billion per year to maintain subsidized wind kWh at 0.18. According to a government web page ( now removed!) Good for Nederlandse Spoorwegen. So I know that its true, just as if I had read it in the Guardian. Hughes didn't make that statement of all windmills, and he allowed that some could recoup their construction costs in three years or less. The story of Apple data centre in Denmark: 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. In contrast to onshore wind farms, almost all turbines by January 2017 were situated in just a few large wind farms. It`s a scam. So how does NS justify the claim that all Dutch trains run on 100% wind power? Everyone drawing energy from the grid is equal, on a physical basis. With this, offshore wind energy makes an important contribution to achieving the increased climate target of 55% less CO2-emissions. [13] The wind farm demonstrates the growth in scale in wind power as between 1987 and 1991 it was the largest of its kind in Europe with 50 turbines and a total nameplate capacity of 15 MW. Thanks for the correction Lars. Of course, weve seen headlines of this type before. According to DutchNews.nl, there's currently a total of 2,200 wind turbines across the country. So, the fact that they can now reliably produce it from wind is big news. However, the government wants 40% of the total electricity used in 2030 in the Netherlands to be supplied by wind. Belgium and Finland, wind farm portfolio guarantees sufficient capacity to cover such eventualities, http://www.sciencealert.com/all-electric-trains-in-the-netherlands-are-now-100-powered-by-wind-energy, http://www.djtelectricaltraining.co.uk/downloads/50Hz-Frequency.pdf, http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-e1-and-vs-t1/, https://askjaenergy.com/2015/03/23/does-apple-not-want-truly-green-data-centers/. France has an even bigger problem with energy poverty even though her supposedly cheaper power. The Eneco Luchterduinen wind farm was officially opened in September 2015 and is a 50/50 joint venture between Dutch energy company Eneco and Japan's Mitsubishi corporation. The Dutch railways network (NS) started using wind energy generated by the turbines owned by electric company Eneco two years ago when they signed a ten-year agreement. EV Use Is Growing, But Where Are The Chargers. That would meet approximately 75% of the countries electricity needs. The farm was dismantled after 22 years service in 2016. As of the 1st of January, 2017, electric Dutch trains are now completely powered by wind energy, according to NS, the national railway company. The historical land of windmills is leading . Yes, they are called dwarves, or possibly hobbits. [3], In March 2022, the Dutch government announced that by 2030 offshore wind was to become the Netherlands' biggest power source, aiming at 21 GW of installed capacity.[4]. This passage was written by David Hughes. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. I would take it, then, that you are not among the poor and elderly who DO give a fig about money? 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. There are ~40 utilities with sharp price competition in NL. Wind turbines feed electricity into the grid and the electric company credits them for the electricity. Does anyone even believe that? The Dutch and other people draw energy from the European grid, which has been generated by many sources. Temporarily, they might even have a surplus to sell. Switch them back on by degrees. Homer-Dixon did not write this viral quote, but he did comment on it in a May 2018 blog post entitled: "No . The two Dutch wind farms that have contracted to sell power to NS (Noordoostpolder and Luchterduinen) are both connected directly to the Dutch grid, along with all the other power plants in the country, and NS draws its power from the grid: Figure 3: The Netherlands electricity grid. Probably not. http://ast.lv/eng/power_system/current_situation_in_power_system/state_of_power_system/ Smaller turbines are often used for off grid, bespoke and community power internationally. Bach supplies data for Belgium, which should be a close analogy, and Figure 4 shows Belgian wind generation for September 2014: Figure 4: Belgian wind generation, September 2014, With an installed capacity of around 1850MW in this month the overall wind capacity factor was 11% and there were a number of occasions on which wind generation fell effectively to zero for hours on end. Just whatever serves your agenda. Its standard accounting practice. In total, NS consumes around 1.2 TWh of electricity to power its trains. If NS consumes an amount of gray electricity, than other consumers who pay for gray electricity will get same amount of wind electricity mixed in their gray electricity. No direct subsidies from the government are related to this contract.. Dutch trains now run on green, renewable energy (Image courtesy of Groenetrain/NS/Eneco). Often only 100% renewable utilities are allowed to participate in the auctions. One such example is the largest wind farm in Holland, Noordoostpolder, which is installing industrial scale wind turbines such as the new Enercon onshore wind turbines, at the time the largest onshore turbines in the world rated at 7500kW nameplate capacity. An earlier version said all Dutch trains were now 100% powered by wind-generated electricity, according to the national railway company NS. While it was originally used to pump water or grind grain, wind is now helping Dutch commuters get to work. N.p., 13 November 2000. Obvious to the meanest intelligence. 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. Dutch trains to be wind-powered from 2018. This has already led to a savings of 1.43 billions kilograms of C02 emissions. 2015 was a record year for new installations in the Netherlands with 586 MW added of which 180 MW were offshore. Claims that Dutch trains running entirely on wind power are way off track. "Since 1 January, 100% of our trains are running on wind energy," said NS. I have no wind records for the Netherlands but P.F. But how does NS know the power it imports is wind? The problem with the high costs for heating in France is the really poor quality of the dwellings, their poor insulating and cheap quality whatever means of heating one uses its literally money thrown away. Stations are heated using heat exchangers, green gas or green electricity. However, everyone must have a contract to be authorized to draw energy from the grid; otherwise it would be stealing. Many of these smaller companies were eventually acquired by the larger wind turbine manufactures such as Vestas, Siemens and Lagerwey. Willem, you dont feel deprived by having 60Hz in the US. The evidence speaks for itself. The 50 Hz, with 3000 RPM generators in Europe, may be due to various reasons, Here is an explanation. The Netherland's national railway company, NS, has announced that all of its electric passenger trains are now 100 percent powered by wind energy. Hughes did write that some windmills might not recoup their energy-construction costs, but he didn't assert, as the meme implied, that no windmills will ever generate as much energy as was invested in building them. Green energy for train, bus and station 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. Do the Netherlands trains really run on http://elering.ee/cross-border-physical-flows/, http://ast.lv/eng/power_system/current_situation_in_power_system/state_of_power_system/, http://www.litgrid.eu/index.php/sistemos-duomenys/79, 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, International Energy Agency Electricity Production Statistics for OECD Countries 2014 2016 | Blogging about energy and transitioning to clean energy, Drone Strike on Saudi Arabia Knocks out 5% of Global Oil Supplies, Grazing, desertification and climate change. All day so far. Plus, it turns out that about half the electricity NS uses to power its rail system comes from outside of the Netherlands. The energy comes from new wind farms in the Netherlands and surrounding countries - and it's a lot. But in reality, the commercial parties are making a double killing: getting free money throughout the FIT contract (paid for 100% by households) *and* profiting from the PR value of presenting themselves as selflessly investing their own money in wind and solar energy for the planet. The wind farm's 86 wind turbines will produce 1.4 billion kWh of electricity, enough. This was 2015 data, so the wind fraction seems to have gone up from 7% to 10% but coal is really powering those trains at least 3x more than wind hey, coal powered trains, where have I heard that before? The headline: Netherlands Trains Now Running on 100% Wind Power. [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). Surprisingly, even the electricity is sourced from windmill electric generato. An all-electric heating is much easier to implement, few properly dimensioned wires and cheap heaters, while a gas heater needs specific know-how and is much more capital-intensive. We do something like this California with biogas. Rod, you must live in Albania E.ON wanted to put my tariff up from 9.79p to 13.87p. The Nuclear Humanist 1.75K subscribers 40 Dislike Share 814 views Jul 23, 2017 The Dutch Railway Corporation. As shown in the table below installed capacity is dominantly fossil fuel, with natural gas making up 61% of total installed capacity and coal 15%. Roger, that map isn`t quite updated. Its worth noting that it would be pointless to put wind turbines in poor locations, and its trivial, or meaningless, to say that a turbine would never pay back its embedded energy in a poor location. The real electricity they use is of course no more or less green than other companies on the same grid use. It's a bit of smoke and mirrors but it helps to subside more expensive forms of generation. As Cleantechnica puts it: the GoO system allows for the transfer of the rights to call electricity green from those who actually generate renewable energy to those who dont but want to classify their power as such. Data from Frontier Economics. I have just signed up with EON at 9.4p per Kwh, It is common for major companies to claim they use renewable or carbon-free power only, on the grounds of green certificates. Conductor rails carry lower voltages than overhead wires, although low is a relative concept. 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. All Dutch electric trains are now powered by wind energy, the national railway company NS has said . However, this quotation, which comes from an essay written by earth scientist David Hughes, was cherry-picked and presented out of context to create a deliberately misleading version of what the author actually said. What Is (And Isn't) Scientific About The Multiverse. The clip is in Dutch so set the captions to translate if you do not speak the language. So technically, the government is not paying for the FITs.. Once its in the network, there are three main options for getting the electricity to the trains themselves: Youve probably noticed at least one of these options on your rail journeys. Only 18,9 Twh were bought in Norway, the rest sold abroad. 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. ) can ever bring them off balance They dont understand, but they believe ! This is about two-thirds of the system. They arent directly powered by wind. The company said all electric trains were now powered by wind energy. Homer-Dixon, Thomas. Imports from the German grid, however, will contain about 14% wind power, although not wind power that NS has contracted for. According to Cleantechnica Money doesnt matter to me. And how does NS justify this lesser claim? Windmills have historically played a major part in the Netherlands by providing an alternative to water driven mills. Produced at least 12 models of 2000, 4000, 4500, and 5000kW. They would stop when there isnt any, obs. 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. This energy is directly traceable to individual wind farms, because we use the GVO European Certification System. You know all that and simply fabricate a problem where there is non. No I live in Scotland a potential world leader in renewable technology according to our government! The turbines supply enough energy to power 2.4 million households. Dutch electric trains are running on 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours of wind energy supplied by sustainable energy supplier, Eneco. One windmill running for an hour can power a train for 120 miles, the companies said. Figure 1: The Netherlands generation mix 2000-2013. Wind contributes 4,117MW, representing 13% of the capacity mix. Nor should you you probably get shaved 20% faster than me! The question is: how long must a windmill generate energy before it creates more energy than it took to build it? The electrons essentially vibrate in place at 60 Hz. Instead of trains recovering energy for their own use, any excess power is directed to a centralized bank of lithium-ion batteries. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Ad Meskens. Fossil fuel-fired power plants produced over 80% of the electricity in the Netherlands, mainly natural gas (42%) and coal (35%). The turbines have a hub height of 135 metres (443ft) and each new turbine can generate as much electricity as all 50 turbines of the old wind farm combined. That is why half of the demand will be sourced from a number of new wind farms in Belgium and Scandinavia, which have been specifically assigned for this contract., http://www.railway-technology.com/features/featuremichel-kerkhof-of-eneco-discusses-the-dutch-rail-networks-renewable-revolution-4647194/. The largest wind farm in the Netherlands is Noordoostpolder with a capacity of 429 MW. [18], In the first week of December 2016, all 150 turbines of the new 600 MW Gemini offshore windfarm began producing power, and the project is expected to be fully commissioned by mid 2017. Overhead wires are best suited to tram and intercity services, whereas the more compact third rail option is preferred for underground trains. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. Illustration There are very little poor people in Germany. ALL traction power for the Dutch railway network will come from wind turbines under a new energy contract signed on May 15 between power company Eneco and Vivens, an energy procurement joint venture which includes Netherlands Railways (NS), Veolia, Arriva, Connexxion and railfreight operators. "So we in fact reached our goal a year earlier than planned," spokesman Ton Boon told AFP. Up until the Westereems Wind Park was commissioned the largest onshore wind farm was the Princess Alexia Windpark in Zeewolde (122MW),[36] consisting of 36 REpower turbines and a 3.2MW/33MWh battery storage power station of BMW i3 batteries. 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