Page 56 - Green Builder Magazine Sept-Oct 2017

Renewables in the Netherlands

AVERAGE 2050 LCOE
% ENERGY SOURCE TECHNICAL NAMEPLATE SOURCE OF ENERGY CAPACITY FOOTPRINT (levelized cost
2
AREA (km )
CAPACITY
FACTOR
POTENTIAL
of electricity)
31% 80 GW 16,000 turbines, 45% 10,700 €.11/kWh
%
60 Offshore each 5 MW rated power
Wind Power
17% 8 GW 1,600 installed turbines, 38% 722 €.7/kWh
%
5 Onshore each 5 MW rated power (2.2%
Wind Power land area)
73% 137 GW 2,740 solar farms, 14% 1,228 €.10/kWh
31.4 % Utility-Scale each 50 MW rated power (3.64%
Solar PV land area) CREDIT: COURTESY OF JEREMY RIFKIN ENTERPRISES/TIR CONSULTING GROUP LLC
27% 15.1 GW 76,280 commercial 13% 73.7 €.13/kWh
3.2 % Residential & rooftop systems, (0.2%
Commercial each 100 kW rated power land area)
Rooftop Solar PV and 1.5 million residential
rooftops systems,
each 5 kW rated power

Renewable opportunities. Renewable energy targets are becoming more common, such as in the Netherlands, where offshore wind power
is the top prospect.
■ Fourth, advanced metering infrastructures and other digital This massive shift has started to appear in Germany with the
■
technologies like energy management systems will need to be establishment of electricity cooperatives. Most of these cooperatives
installed in every building, transforming the energy grid into a were successful in securing low interest loans from banks to install
fully digitized bidirectional system in order to manage multiple solar, wind and other renewable energies on site. The banks were
sources of energy flowing to the grid from local generators (smart more than happy to provide the loans, assured that the funds
grid implementation). would be paid back by the premium price the cooperatives would
The Dutch utility companies have announced the nationwide receive—via feed-in-tariffs—from selling the new green electricity
installation of smart electricity meters with the goal of 100 percent back to the grid.
deployment between 2016 and 2020. This will enable passive The rise of electric cooperatives has forced electricity companies
consumers of energy in the Metropolitan Region of Rotterdam and to rethink their business practices. A decade ago, four giant vertically
The Hague to become active prosumers of their own green energy, integrated electricity generating companies—E.ON, RWE, EnBW,
which they can then use off-grid to manage their facilities or sell and Vattenfall—were producing much of the electricity powering
back to the Energy Internet. Germany. Today, they are producing less than 7 percent of the new
[In addition], every parking space will need to be equipped with green electricity that’s taking Germany into a Third Industrial
a charging station to allow electric and fuel cell vehicles to secure Revolution.
power from the Energy Internet, as well as sell power back to the Peter Terium, CEO of RWE, the German-based energy company,
electricity grid. Electric and fuel cell vehicles connected to the Energy acknowledges the massive shift taking place in Germany from
Internet also provide a massive backup storage system that can centralized to distributed power, and says that the bigger power
send electricity to the grid during peak demand, when the price of and utility companies “have to adjust to the fact that, in the longer
electricity has spiked, allowing vehicle owners to be appropriately term, earning capacity in conventional electricity generation will be
compensated for contributing their electricity to the network. Figure markedly below what we’ve seen in recent years.” GB
3 provides representative battery energy storage applications for
further clarity. Jeremy Rifkin is an American economist and author whose best-selling
The phase-in and the integration of these foundational pillars Third Industrial Revolution served as a blueprint for Germany’s
will transform the electricity grid of the Metropolitan Region of transition to a low-carbon economy, and China’s strategic acceptance of
Rotterdam and The Hague from a centralized to a distributed energy climate policy. He is also president of TIR Consulting Group, a coalition of
system, and from fossil fuel and nuclear generation to renewable companies and consulting organizations in the fields of energy efficiency,
energy. In the new system, every business, neighborhood and renewable energy technologies, construction, advanced fabrication
homeowner becomes the producer of electricity, sharing their surplus manufacturing, engineering, urban planning, architecture, real estate,
with others on a smart Energy Internet that is beginning to stretch information and communication technologies, power and utilities, and
across national and continental landmasses. transport and logistics. He may be contacted at jrifkin@foet.org.

54 GREEN BUILDER September/October 2017 www.greenbuildermedia.com

52-55 GB 0917 SUS Symposium.indd 54 10/11/17 5:21 PM