【Het Leven in Nederland 09】Energy Debate
By: Ai-Yu Liou
Tags: Tu Delft, Netherlands, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, Shell

Written on May 11, 2019 / Date of the event: Mar. 19, 2019

There was an energy debate at TU Delft in the middle of March, which was hosted by Students4Sustainability and AIESEC Delft.

Various speakers from the field of politics, energy business, and education were invited to this event, including Ad van Wijk (professor at the TU Delft), Sigrid Kaag (Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation), Jan Peter Balkenende (former Prime Minister), Yuri Sebregts (CTO of Shell), and Anne-Marie Rakhorst (founder of duurzaamheid.nl).

Although the event was called the “Energy Debate”, there was a clear consensus among the speakers towards the development of energy transition. Unlike the great conflict between the advocators of nuclear energy and renewable energy in Taiwan, the goal of developing infrastructure and technology of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, hydrogen) in the Netherlands was strongly agreed upon by the speakers.

Another significant thing to notice is Shell’s investment in renewable energy in recent years. Shell stated that they have invested up to $2 billion a year in cleaner energy solutions, including setting up hydrogen refueling facilities at their retail stations and developing smart charging systems for electric vehicles across Europe. During the energy debate, Yuri Sebregts, CTO of Shell, also reported their new investment in a 120MW solar farm in Queensland, Australia.

In Sebregts’ opinion, the short term goal for energy transition should be the improvement of energy efficiency, and the greatest technical challenge at this moment is the storage of electricity from renewable sources.

Although there are plenty of events (e.g. debates, workshops, speeches) related to the energy transition inside of TU Delft recently, which shows that people highly value the discussion of this issue, the Netherlands is actually not performing well in reaching the sustainable target of EU. According to Eurostat, only 5% of the energy used in the Netherlands comes from renewable sources such as biofuels, hydro or wind power, solar or geothermal energy in 2016. To reach the renewable target set by the EU, the Netherlands still has a lot of works to do.

The energy market in the Netherlands

1. The Dutch energy market is liberalized, which means that people are free to choose their own provider for electricity and gas. Consumers can look into the details of suppliers and make a comparison on Energievergelijken.nl.

2. The nuclear energy in the Netherlands only accounts for 1% of the total energy consumption in 2016 (5% for renewable energy, 39% for natural gas, and 53% for oil and coal).

According to the article (reference 2), the reason why companies in the Netherlands do not want to invest in nuclear energy is economic viability. Due to the high cost, and the lack of a waste disposal plan with a qualified safety standard, building another nuclear power plant is not considered as a practical option by Dutch society in the near future.

Reference

[1] Shell’s New Energies business: https://www.shell.com/energy-and.../new-energies.html

[2] The development of nuclear energy in the Netherlands: https://e-info.org.tw/node/215141

[3] Energy consumption in the Netherlands: https://www.ebn.nl/.../2018/04/EBN-poster-numbers2016.pdf