New Dutch hyperloop test facility at the Technical University of Delft. Travelling in near-vacuum, faster than a plane.
[delfthyperloop.nl] – Official project site
[wikipedia.org] – Hyperloop
[esc.ethz.ch] – Energy Efficiency of an Electrodynamically Levitated Hyperloop Pod
[pes-publications.ee.ethz.ch] – Scaling laws for electrodynamic suspension in high-speed transportation
[era.europa.eu] – Hyperloop – an Innovation for Global Transportation? (skeptical)
The Dutch government has presented ambitious plans to completely reorganize the energy landscape in the Netherlands. The plan needs to be realized in 2050 and 2030 is an important intermediate milestone. The bullet points:
By 2050 CO2-emissions reduced to 5% of 1990 level. In 2030 a reduction of 49% compared with 1990.
District heating in larger cities.
“heat fund”, providing cheap long-term loans to the public for energy transition purposes.
The Netherlands is divided in 30 energy regions, that each should provide plans (RES, “regional energy strategy”) how to achieve full decarbonization (thermal isolation, heat pumps, etc.).
Electricity to become cheaper, natural gas substantially more expensive. Heating and cooking on gas needs to be phased out.
Rapid closure of the 5 remaining coal power stations in the coming few years.
As of 2030, all new cars need to be e-vehicles. Two-wheelers must be electric as of 2025.
In the coming few years new e-vehicles are to be subsidized with 3000,- euro to stimulate demand.
Road pricing almost certainly to happen (paying per kilometer, probably as of 2026)
The size of the national livestock is to be diminished.
Industry CO2 tax in 2021. 30 euro per ton, gradually increasing to 150 euro in 2030.
[nos.nl] – Klimaatakkoord leidt tot flinke ingrepen in het landschap
[nos.nl] – Klimaatplannen van kabinet bekend: dit betekenen ze voor jou
30 energy regions that all need to come up with a detailed plan for the local situation.
Today, the Dutch king Willem-Alexander opened a pilot hydrogen production facility named Hystock in Veendam, in the North of the Netherlands. The facility has a power-2-gas capacity of 1 MW, sufficient to permanently keep 80 cars going.
The so-called “hydrogen coalition” lobby organisation, that has a members all the big names like Tennet, Nuon, Gas-Unie, Tata Steel, Port of Rotterdam, TU-Eindhoven, Greenpeace and many others, pleads for 3-4 GW capacity by 2030. The Netherlands on average consumes 13 GW electricity. The country has a vast natural gas network that can be retrofitted for hydrogen. A price level of 1.5-3 euro per kg hydrogen is considered to be feasible for 2030. Required annual investment is 300 million euro until 2030.
[ptindustrieelmanagement.nl] – Koning opent groene waterstofinstallatie HyStock
[ptindustrieelmanagement.nl] – Pleidooi voor forse opschaling groene waterstof
[cloudfront.net] – Manifesto hydrogen coalition (Dutch, 8p)
[gasunie.nl] – Gasunie converts sustainable energy into hydrogen with first 1 MW Power-to-gas installation in the Netherlands
[energystock.com] – The hydrogen project HyStock
[deepresource] – The Emerging Dutch Hydrogen Economy
Met het initiatief van Haven Amsterdam, Tata Steel en Nouryon om een waterstofproductiefabriek in het Noordzeekanaalgebied te willen gaan bouwen, wordt de Metropoolregio Amsterdam het centrum van de productie in duurzame energie, opgewekt door windmolens op zee. Het lijkt alsof waterstof de heilige graal is naar een duurzaam alternatief voor fossiele brandstoffen. Maar wat is waterstof precies? En wat kunnen we er mee? En wie gaan dit gebruiken?
Een nieuw element dient zich aan als versneller van de energietransitie: waterstof. Het lichtste gas dat we kennen heeft alle potentieel om dé centrale plek van duurzame energiedrager in de economie van morgen in te nemen. Het kan namelijk de overtollige energie van zonnepanelen en windturbines opslaan, om zo te voorzien in een continue energiestroom voor industrie en huishoudens. Kunnen we, als Nederland straks van het aardgas af gaat, het bestaande gasnet gebruiken voor groene waterstof? Waterstofproductie biedt nieuwe kansen voor Groningen en de eerste auto’s aangevoerd door waterstof rijden al rond. Wat moet er daadwerkelijk gebeuren om het potentieel van waterstof waar te maken? Is waterstof nu werkelijk de absolute weg voorwaarts of is er nood aan nuance? Wat is het potentieel van waterstof voor de energietransitie?
Lightyear One is a Dutch startup, emerging from the Technical University Eindhoven-based Solar Team Eindhoven, that very successfully participated in several editions of the Australian World Solar Challenge, see links below. The company presented today their first “solar car”, a car that in sunny climates can drive for months without having to be recharged, provided it is parked in the sun and not under trees or under carports. With this condition fulfilled the car can drive ca. 20,000 km in sunny climates, like in most parts of the US or southern Europe, 10,000 km in cloudy Holland, without external charging. Note that in Holland average annual distance driven is ca. 13,000 km.
Data sheet:
– 5 m2 solar cells
– Max range with charged batteries and additional sun: 725 km
– No rear window, camera’s only
– CW-value: less than 0.20
– 4 electric motors in the wheels
– Weight ca. 1000 kg
– 2021 small scale production
– End 2022 1500/year production
– 2024-2025 mass production in Helmond
– Design Lowie Vermeersch (Ferrari e.o., #12 in world car designers ranking)
– Initial price low volume production: 119,000 euro
Prime time Dutch news item: king Willem Alexander opens the new factory of the insect company Protix, the largest in the world of its kind. The company produces high quality protein insects as animal feed. Currently one third of the global areal land is used to produce conventional animal feed. Entrepreneur Kees Aarts is in this business for nine years and hopes to contribute to freeing agricultural land for other purposes.
[nos.nl] – Insecten als veevoer: revolutie of ‘quasi-groen’?
[protix.eu] – Company site
[wikipedia.org] – Protix
[prnewswire.com] – Protix Acquires Fair Insects and Diversifies by Adding Mealworm, Cricket and Locusts to Its Portfolio
Dutch national carrier KLM and the Technical University Delft are to develop a pilot into designing a radical new V-shaped aircraft. According to the engineers involved a reduction in fuel consumption of 20% per passenger should be feasible as compared to the Airbus A350, the most modern airplane in the world today. Key are better aerodynamics and less weight. Development is expected to take at least 20 years. A first scaled prototype is expected for October 2019. Earlier Schiphol Amsterdam Airport made the headlines by announcing to develop synthetic fuel for airplanes “out of thin air”.
[cnn.com] – KLM to fund development of fuel-efficient Flying-V plane
[rtlz.nl] – KLM en TU Delft bouwen opvallend vliegtuig in v-vorm
[businessinsider.nl] – KLM en TU Delft gaan de Flying-V ontwerpen
[ad.nl] – KLM en TU Delft werken aan V-vormig vliegtuig
[deingenieur.nl] – KLM Steekt Geld in “Vliegende V” uit Delft
[deepresource] – Amsterdam Airport Carbon-Neutral?
We’re in the mood for a back-of-an-envelope calculation. Let’s calculate how much offshore wind energy is required if a country like the Netherlands would phase out private car ownership and replace that old mobility model with a new one, namely electric ride sharing, as is being experimented with now in Hamburg.
According to the Dutch government bean counting institute CBS (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek), in 2016 all ca. 8 million Dutch cars drove 118.5 billion km or 13,200 km per car. The average occupation rate is ca. 1,25. So the total amount of passenger-km is 118.5 billion x 1.25 = 148 billion km.
The Volkswagen Moia has a battery of 87 kWh and a range of 300 km. Let’s assume an average occupation rate of 5 passengers for the 7 available seats. That’s 0.29 kWh/km/vehicle or 0.058 kWh/km/passenger.
Now back to the Dutch figures. 148 billion passenger km, driven in Volkswagen Moia’s, with an average occupancy rate of 5 would amount to 148 billion x 0.058 kWh = 8584 GWh/year. The annual output of the currently largest Dutch offshore windpark Gemini is ca. 2600 GWh/year. In other words, the Netherlands would need merely 3.3 of those wind parks to enable the current level of private mobility. Much larger windparks than Gemini are in pipeline, like the 1400 MW Borssele I-V, scheduled for completion in 2021. Together, Gemini and Borssele would suffice.
Obviously more capacity needs to be calculated to compensate for storage losses. But the message is clear: it is very well possible to remain mobile in a climate-friendly fashion after the end of the fossil fuel age.
[cities-today.com] – Hamburg trials Europe’s largest electric ride-sharing service
[cbs.nl] – Forse groei autokilometers
[electrive.net] – Volkswagen-Ridesharing: Moin, MOIA!
[wikipedia.org] – Gemini Wind Farm
This blog reported earlier about the Zinc smelter Nyrstar. This company is interesting in the light of the potential of metal powder as a fuel, as well as the Metalot campus that should promote the “circular economy”. The company was on the verge of going broke, but was saved by the Belgian trading company Trafigura.
[bloomberg.com] – Trafigura to Take Over World’s Second-Largest Zinc Smelter
[finanzen.nl] – Trafigura krijgt zinksmelter Nyrstar in handen
[tijd.be] – Meer Nyrstar-geld voor Trafigura-topman
[deepresource] – Nyrstar – The Next Royal Dutch Shell?
[deepresource] – Metalot Campus
The Amsterdam Airport CEO knows that the current business model of flying planes on conventional fuel has no future in the light of the renewable energy policy of the European Union, that says that fossil fuels need to be phased out by 2050, thirty years from now. Enter synthetic kerosene, produced with the ingredients: CO2, water and renewable electricity. A German company has been asked to build an installation with which 1,000 liter of synthetic kerosene can be produced per day, as a pilot project, pun intended. Radically new is that the CO2 is sourced from the air, not from industrial processes. As a first step, water and CO2 are converted into hydrogen and CO with renewable electricity. From this mixture, synthetic kerosene can be produced.
Independently, the construction of a plant in Delfzijl, in the Groningen province is planned, that will produce annually 75.000 tot 100.000 ton bio-kerosene, also for aviation purposes. Investment volume 250 million euro. For the moment bio-kerosene costs 2-3 times as much as conventional kerosene. Nothing that can’t be solved with higher air fares.
As an additional benefit, the production of renewable kerosene provides an excellent storage opportunity for renewable electricity.
[trouw.nl] – Schiphol en Rotterdam Airport gaan inzetten op synthetische kerosine
[bvm2.nl] – Synthetische kerosine als brandstof voor de luchtvaart (pdf, 58p)
[dvhn.nl] – Eerste Europese Raffinaderij voor Biokerosine in Delfzijl
[dvhn.nl] – Biokerosine: veel schoner, maar ook veel duurder dan gewone kerosine
[topsectorenergie.nl] – Take-off synthetic kerosene production in the Netherlands
[nrc.nl] – Synthetische kerosine is de enige oplossing
[bjmgerard.nl] – Tag: synthetische kerosine
New offshore wind installation mega-vessel “Voltaire”, able to lift 3,000 ton, ordered by Jan de Nul, Belgium, scheduled to become operational in 2022.
According to Bloomberg there are merely a dozen ships in the world that can install a large offshore wind turbine, which is understandable with a list price of ca. 300 million euro per ship. Currently almost all these vessels are operating in European waters. Europe is uniquely blessed with ca. 600,000 km2 shallow water with high wind speeds (North Sea, Baltic and Irish Sea, together an area larger than France) that can be utilized for offshore wind, in principle enough to supply the entire EU (300 GW on average), three-five times over.
[deepresource] – The Giants of a New Energy Age
[deepresource] – European Wind Energy Potential
[deepresource] – The Enormous Energy Potential of the North Sea
[deepresource] – Unleashing Europe’s Offshore Wind Potential 2030
Principle offshore wind installation vessel illustrated. About one turbine foundation can be realized per day or 4 per week, if fetching a new batch in port is included. The next generation is 10 MW, 13 MW is in the pipeline. Take the Netherlands: 13 GW average electricity consumption. That could be covered by 1,000 wind turbines, or 2,000 rather, if a conservative capacity factor of 50% for large turbines is taken into account. That’s 500 weeks or 10 years installation time. So, a single ship can realize the electricity transition of a country like Holland in a decade. For 100% renewable primary energy we need to calculate twice the amount of electricity consumed today, that’s only two decades! Productivity could be significantly enhanced if a simple cheap barge and tugboat is used to fetch a new batch of 4-6 monopiles from the harbor in Rotterdam, Vlissingen or Eemshaven, while the expensive installation vessel Aeolus merrily hammers away full-time. In that case 4,000 13 MW turbines could be installed in 4,000 days or 11 years. Note that in the mean time a lot of additional solar and onshore wind capacity has been, c.q. will be built. In conclusion: this single ship Aeolus is able to complete the energy transition of the Netherlands, the #17 in the global GDP ranking before 2030, not 2050 as the EU demands. Most likely developing sufficient storage capacity will be the real bottleneck, not electricity generation capacity.
1600 GW waiting to be raked in. EU average power consumption 300 GW. The old continent has no conventional fossil fuel reserves worth mentioning, fortunately Europe doesn’t need to. Armed with the Paris Climate Accords, Europe effectively dissed everybody else his fossil fuel reserves and is offering a viable alternative instead.
Some recent developments in the fields of offshore jack-up vessels:
[bloomberg.com] – Offshore Wind Will Need Bigger Boats. Much Bigger Boats
[auxnavaliaplus.org] – Vessels and platforms for the emerging wind market (pdf, 108p)
[deme-group.com] – DEME’s giant installation vessel ‘Orion’ launched in China
[a2sea.com] – A2SEA Invests in a New Jack-up Vessel
[4coffshore.com] – Construction Progressing for Next Gen Vessel
[cemreshipyard.com] – Offshore Vessels Demand for Offshore Wind Activities
[windenergie-magazine.nl] – Jan de Nul orders new installation vessel
[jandenul.com] – Getting ready for the next generation of offshore wind projects
[offshorewind.biz] – Jan De Nul Orders Mega Jack-Up
[industryreports24.com] – Massive hike by Wind Turbine Installation Vessel Market
[renews.biz] – Japan joins offshore wind jack-up brigade
[maritime-executive.com] – Wind Tower Service Firm Plans to Build Jones Act Ships
[iro.nl] – New design jack-up vessels to strengthen Ulstein’s offshore wind ambitions
[newenergyupdate.com] – Flurry US offshore vessel deals prepares market for huge turbines
“There is something in the air”… N2, O2, H2O, CO2, solar radiation. In principle all the ingredients are there to produce hydrogen H2, by using the solar light to split the moist H2O. That’s exactly what Japanese car company Toyota in Europe (TME) and DIFFER (Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research) have agreed to research upon. The self-imposed restriction of using moist, naturally present in the air, is justified by pointing at the pure character of the water vapor, no bubbles, as well as applicability in those places where water is not available.
new solid photoelectrochemical cell that was able to first capture water from ambient air and then produce hydrogen under the influence of sunlight. This first prototype immediately took 60 to 70 percent of the amount of hydrogen you can make from liquid water. The system is a membrane reactor in which polymer electrolyte membranes, porous photoelectrodes and materials that absorb water are combined.
When Toyota approached DIFFER, the latter group was already working on hydrolysis of water vapor. They have meanwhile shown that the idea works, but only for the 5% UV light. The next challenge is to expand the amount of light that can be used for the desired conversion. Once that has been achieved, scaling is next.
Both DIFFER and Toyota are operating in a social climate that is receptive towards hydrogen as an energy carrier. Both Japan as well as the Netherlands aspire to operate a hydrogen economy. The end goal is (very) local hydrogen production (like your roof), for instance for mobility, Toyota’s interest. Your home as the replacement for the petrol station.
Sunlight and this stand-alone prototype: all you need to produce hydrogen.
[gasworld.com] – DIFFER and Toyota partner to produce hydrogen from humid air
[differ.nl] – Hydrogen Fuel from thin air
[differ.nl] – Catalytic and Electrochemical Processes for Energy Application
[newsroom.toyota.eu] – Hydrogen fuel from thin air
[hydrogenfuelnews.com] – Toyota and DIFFER explore innovative hydrogen production from humid air
[nl.wikipedia.org] – DIFFER (fusion & solar fuels)
The Netherlands is lagging behind in Europe with the implementation of renewable energy and as a consequence is lagging behind with reducing CO2-emissions, the country has committed itself to as a member of the EU. But there is an alternative to renewable energy sources to reduce emission and that is storing CO2 underground. The Harbors of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp and others will build the world’s largest CO2-storage in the North Sea with a capacity of 10 million tons CO2 per year, pending an EU-subsidy. A ring-pipeline will be built around Rotterdam, that harbors the largest refineries in Europe, a major source of CO2, that will collect the CO2 and pump it under the North Sea in an empty gas field, 10 km out of the coast. Cost: 450 million euro. Environmental organisations would prefer to invest this money in renewable energy generation. Rotterdam harbor is responsible for 17% of all Dutch emissions.
[volkskrant.nl] – Havens van Rotterdam, Antwerpen en Vlissingen willen samen CO2 opslaan in de Noordzee
[portofrotterdam.com] – CO2-opslag onder Noordzee technisch haalbaar en kosteneffectief
[spiegel.de] – Weltweit größter CO2-Speicher in der Nordsee geplant
[source] – Location “Porthos” storage near Rotterdam, in the North Sea
The very EU-friendly Dutch left-liberal party Democrats-1966 (D66) proposes to install in the inland sea IJsselmeer, 4000 hectare worth of “solar islands”, enough to supply 1 million households with electricity (year-to-year, ignoring storage). That would amount to 4% of the IJsselmeer area. The Netherlands btw has 8 million households, so 32% of this relatively calm water body would suffice to cover the entire Dutch private electricity needs, assuming adequate efficient storage would be in place. The far less calm North Sea could easily provide the rest with wind turbines. A mixture of the solar and wind is desirable because it more or less compensates for seasonal fluctuations (solar in the summer and wind in the winter) and thus reduces the need for storage.
The timing of the launching of the plan could have something to do with the upcoming EU-elections, on the other hand, the Dutch are far behind with the implementation of the EU renewable energy policy and something has to be done. Money could for a large part come from private investors and pension funds, who will see this as a safe investment opportunity with predictable returns, exactly like every German farmer in the north could cash in from the wind energy Bonanza.
Other parties have not yet reacted.
[trouw.nl] – Als het aan D66 ligt, drijven er binnenkort zonnepaneeleilanden op het IJsselmeer
[ijsselmeervereniging.nl] – Predictable objections from the “not-in-my-backyard” crowd
[twitter.com] – D66
