The real electricity they use is of course no more or less green than other companies on the same grid use. Sign up for our email newsletter! Ive included a (slightly-edited) mini-excerpt from my recent book, Science and the City, to explain: Electric locomotives dont have conventional engines. However, it seems officials have been able to beat that goal by an entire year. For example, in 2015, Burlington, Vermont, became the first city to announce it was running totally on renewable power. By using the brake to change the connections on a trains motors, they stop turning the wheels, slowing the train, and instead produce electricity that can be used elsewhere. Their goal was to operate all NS trains on electricity produced by wind turbines by January 2018. Works for me, and they were cheaper than EON too. 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. How much wind? All Dutch electric trains are now powered by wind energy, the national railway company NS has said . I am told Biogas is not actually allowed in our pipeline system. Most wind power is produced in the province of Flevoland. The turbines supply enough energy to power 2.4 million households. TL;DR Dutch trains run on natural gas and coal power, not wind power. "Since 1 January, 100% of our trains are running on wind energy," said NS spokesman,. Wind turbines feed electricity into the grid and the electric company credits them for the electricity. 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. 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. quite an amount of work youve done there, It doesnt add up ! I have no wind records for the Netherlands but P.F. [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. 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. This page was last edited on 14 January 2023, at 23:49. When challenged on its claim, NS clarified that only the electrified portion of its system runs completely on wind power. The electrons essentially vibrate in place at 60 Hz. Thanks for the correction Lars. So the standard is that 100% renewable utilities buy or produce same amount of 100% renewable electricity they sell. Probably not. However, the government wants 40% of the total electricity used in 2030 in the Netherlands to be supplied by wind. Offsets. 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.. If a energy supply company contracts with a renewable provider ( I am not including nuclear sources) would it be based on the installed power of the wind farms or a capacity factor adjusted power capabilities? Started operations in 1979. Claims that Dutch trains running entirely on wind power are way off track. from northern Maine to southern Florida, about 1800 miles in 0.01 second. This has already led to a savings of 1.43 billions kilograms of C02 emissions. HomerDixon.com. 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. 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. 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. However, wind power consumption in the Netherlands in 2015 was 12.5TWh, indicating that about 5TWh of wind power was imported during the year. Even cheap electricity doesnt change anything. Produced at least 14 models of 100. The Netherland's national railway company, NS, has announced that all of its electric passenger trains are now 100 percent powered by wind energy. Many of the numerous smaller and older wind farms in the Netherlands consist of much smaller turbines compared to those typically deployed today. Sign up for our email newsletter! Homer-Dixon, Thomas. While it was originally used to pump water or grind grain, wind is now helping Dutch commuters get to work. NS operates about 5,500 train trips a day. Many of these smaller companies were eventually acquired by the larger wind turbine manufactures such as Vestas, Siemens and Lagerwey. Every electric train on the Dutch railways NS network now gets 100 per cent of its energy from wind energy. The pickup shoes do occasionally lose contact anyway, albeit very briefly, at track junctions. The company said all electric trains were now powered by wind energy. (Data from ENTSO-E ): No details on the current generation mix are readily available, but as shown in Figure 1 gas and coal supplied around 80% of the Netherlands electricity between 2000 and 2013 and its likely that this percentage still applies. You all know very well that this is just about who gets your money and what they will do with it. 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. Its of course a waste to install a separate grid with only 100% renewable electricity. 5.3M views, 13K likes, 1.3K loves, 1.7K comments, 95K shares, Facebook Watch Videos from BrightVibes: Amazing news! The 600,000 daily. Switch them back on by degrees. 90/month for the typical 3 person household. The company said all electric trains were now powered by wind energy. [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. 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. There are very little poor people in Germany. Good for Nederlandse Spoorwegen. EV Use Is Growing, But Where Are The Chargers. Two of the models are still under production. You are not really concerned about the energy bills of the poor. Eneco and NS said on a joint website that around 600,000 passengers daily are the first in the world to travel thanks to wind energy. 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. NO. With wind power usage in 2015 equal to 12.5 billion kWh, Dutch demand for wind power amply exceeds supply. According to DutchNews.nl, there's currently a total of 2,200 wind turbines across the country. It seems small compared with our renewables subsidies in the UK, which are of the order fo 150-450 times as big per MWh. Whilst there are a growing number of large onshore wind farms in Holland, most of the onshore farms in 2015 consisted of a large number of small wind farms, including many single installation turbines as well as farms of between 110 turbines. Calculated value from total installed nameplate capacity and actual electricity generation. Since 2019, the buses have been powered by HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) made from processed deep fryer oil and industrial fats. As of the 1st of January, 2017, electric Dutch trains are now completely powered by wind energy, according to NS, the national railway company. BBC News. All Dutch electric trains are now powered by wind energy, the national railway company NS has said . Hinkley C will have a footprint of 165 acres when operational and an equivalent footprint for onshore windturbines would be from 160,000 to 490,000 acres (dependent on power of turbines available) to produce the same power output over a year. 14 October 2009. Earlier this week, one of their national railway companies, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), announced that, since 1 st January, every single one of its electric trains have been running on energy. - YouTube 0:00 / 6:04 Do Dutch trains run on Wind? This is a BETA experience. Such as happened earlier this year in the UK when we had several days of around only 300MW of total metered wind power. I struggled to find reliable figures to back that up, so I didnt want to repeat the claim here. 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). That would power a large proportion of all of the households in Amsterdam**. Everybody should buy only 100% RE. Heres a fantasy as to how Nederlandse Spoorwegen could make their claims of only using wind power a reality. French people are bricoleurs they like to build their own house, thanks to the fact that if it has a surface below 175 m2 you dont need to go through an architect, you can do your own building plan. 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. 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. Overhead wires are best suited to tram and intercity services, whereas the more compact third rail option is preferred for underground trains. But how does NS know the power it imports is wind? 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