Just to clarify- the above headline doesn’t mean that there will be some newfangled form of train that is blown along the tracks like sailing ships! It means that wind harvested electricity will be used to power all of Holland’s rail network in the next 4-5 years. Dutch trains will begin using green energy from next year.
Under the terms of a new contract announced earlier in May, utility Eneco is set to supply the Netherlands’ train system with 1.4TWh of electricity from domestic wind farms and from installations in Belgium and as far away as Scandinavia. Just to get this in perspective, the power supplies are equivalent to the amount of electricity used by all Amsterdam residents in one year.
The deal was signed with the VIVENS co-operative, an energy procurement joint venture that includes Netherlands Railways (NS), Veolia, Arriva, Connexxion and rail freight operators. 50% of NS electric trains will run on green power by the end of 2015, rising to 70% the following year and 95% in 2017. The goal is that by 2018 all trains will run on renewable energy. The contract expires in 2025 and is thought to be the largest green energy contract yet signed in the Netherlands.
This initiative is partly fuelled by people power: NS says that in a survey they conducted, eight out of 10 passengers consider it important for rail companies to switch to green power. Since 2005 NS claims to have cut electricity consumption per passenger kilometer by 30 percent and says that the deal will reduce carbon emissions for each of its 1.2 million daily passengers from 30 grams to zero!
The Netherlands wants to hit its target of producing 14 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020. The country currently has 2.7GW of wind power capacity in operation, most of which is onshore and aims to reach 4.45GW by 2023. All aboard the Green Express!
