dutch trains wind power snopes

So we in fact reached our goal a year earlier than planned, said Boon, adding that an increase in the number of wind farms across the country and off the coast of the Netherlands had helped NS achieve its aim. Plus, it turns out that about half the electricity NS uses to power its rail system comes from outside of the Netherlands. Produced at least 12 models of 2000, 4000, 4500, and 5000kW. Initially, trains in the Netherlands were set to run entirely on renewable energy by 2018. The European high voltage grid connects Finland with Sweden but doesnt go through the Baltic States. But none of this wind power is directly connected to the NS rail system. A little more than a tenth of all electricity consumed in the Netherlands comes from wind power, some of which is imported. The first two are feel good justifications that have no practical impact. This article was amended on 11 January 2017. 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. 14 October 2009. And of course no such connections exist. "Exploiting wind power in Holland." What happens where there is insufficient wind for the required duration to powerup the batteries? 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. The largest wind farm in the Netherlands is Noordoostpolder with a capacity of 429 MW. 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. First some details on the Netherlands electricity sector. Our ambition is also to use more of our own resources (buildings, property) to generate sustainable energy. The US city of Philadelphia has taken regenerative braking to a new level though. Half of this electricity comes from the Netherlands, and the other half is imported from Sweden, Finland, and Belgium. 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! [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. Works for me, and they were cheaper than EON too. The turbines supply enough energy to power 2.4 million households. The clip is in Dutch so set the captions to translate if you do not speak the language. I read about them and saw a documentary film about them. This year the country is due to start operating a 600-megawatt offshore wind farm, called Gemini. Stations are heated using heat exchangers, green gas or green electricity. But how does NS know the power it imports is wind? I would take it, then, that you are not among the poor and elderly who DO give a fig about money? 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. 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. http://www.litgrid.eu/index.php/sistemos-duomenys/79. The wind farm's 86 wind turbines will produce 1.4 billion kWh of electricity, enough. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. At this point, total Dutch wind power generation is about 7.4 billion kWh annually. 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. Hughes didn't make that statement of all windmills, and he allowed that some could recoup their construction costs in three years or less. 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. 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). 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. https://askjaenergy.com/2015/03/23/does-apple-not-want-truly-green-data-centers/. Nevermind the entirety of it. NS uses as much electricity as all Amsterdam residents combined, and its trains represent over 90 percent of commercial train travel in the country. OK, these days its less than the bandwidth to your mobile, but mumble years ago it was the real deal. (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. Whats the trick? Produced at least 8 models with power outputs of 100, 250, 500, 1000kW. And meanwhile the Netherlands electrified railways continue to be powered dominantly by fossil fuel electricity. Imports from the German grid, however, will contain about 14% wind power, although not wind power that NS has contracted for. 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. You are not really concerned about the energy bills of the poor. Money doesnt matter to me. 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. No direct subsidies from the government are related to this contract.. 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 point about this is that it is just PR. The electrons that run the electrified portion of the NS system come from many sources, including wind, but also from coal, natural gas, and nuclear. The wholesale price of GOs seems to be a mere 0.36/MWh or so. This is the cause of the very bright, blue-white spark you sometimes see near the third rail, as well as flickering carriage lights. Switch them back on by degrees. As of January 1, all electric passenger trains on the Dutch rail network have been run on wind energy, according to a statement from operator NS (via EcoWatch ). Homer-Dixon did not write this viral quote, but he did comment on it in a May 2018 blog post entitled: "No . Claims that Dutch trains running entirely on wind power are way off track. Its our offshore coal burn. In total, NS consumes around 1.2 TWh of electricity to power its trains. But its a funny read. 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. There are very little poor people in Germany., http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/high-costs-and-errors-of-german-transition-to-renewable-energy-a-920288.html, The Spiegel FUD wont cut it. It is a special fund used by the Dutch government to make investments in renewable energy profitable. Where I post my arguments on various things climate-related, belief that a 100% renewable-powered train can and does exist is ubiquitous. As of Jan. 1, 600,000 daily train passengers have been traveling completely carbon neutral, according to an announcement from the Netherlands principal passenger railway operator, NS. In total there were 3,004 MW of onshore wind power at the end of 2015. So the standard is that 100% renewable utilities buy or produce same amount of 100% renewable electricity they sell. Good for Nederlandse Spoorwegen. ) can ever bring them off balance They dont understand, but they believe ! If you would like to know more, click here. Only a small fraction of the power delivered to its trains actually comes from wind.. How Sustainable and Ethical Is the Tuna at Your Supermarket? Electricity backed 100% by low-carbon generation, Its also why we make good on our supply promise for homes on our Blue tariffs: well match every unit you use with electricity generated from low-carbon nuclear sources.. 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. one of their national railway companies, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), 700 MW offshore windfarm near the town of Borssele. Deregulation Is Still Wrong for Consumers. Often only 100% renewable utilities are allowed to participate in the auctions. 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. At a good wind site, the energy payback day could be in three years or less; in a poor location, energy payback may be never. Everyone drawing energy from the grid is equal, on a physical basis. Two of the models are still under production. 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 an anything goes era of news and social media, its not often that a post jumps off the page. Nor should you you probably get shaved 20% faster than me! The pickup shoes do occasionally lose contact anyway, albeit very briefly, at track junctions. It seems that NS may be outsourcing costs as well as power. In late 2015, the Dutch government announced its goal to power the country's electric trains entirely with wind power by 2018. 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. The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Julian Turner gets the inside track on the unique collaboration from Michel Kerkhof, account manager at Eneco. NS is the main public train in the Netherlands. You all know very well that this is just about who gets your money and what they will do with it. BBC News. If thats the case, it marks a major turning point in the story of renewables. This record was immediately beaten the following year with another 766 MW being added. HomerDixon.com. 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. 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