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#RenewableEnergy #WindEnergy #Sustainable #Transportation-NS-Dutch Trains
Category: Sustainable Design
Industry: Transportation-Rail Carriers
Location: the Netherlands
Related to: Sustainable Energy/ Renewable Energy/ Wind Farms/ Transportation
Reviewer: Flore van den Akker (Parsons School of Design-Integrated Design)
Company: NS and Eneco
Website: http://www.ns.nl/en/about-ns/energy/sustainable-energy.html
The NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) began running their trains on renewable energy (most of which is wind energy) this past month-January 2017. While initially planning on having all trains run on renewable energy by 2018, the NS managed to achieve this a year early through the collaboration with Eneco (“one of the largest producers and suppliers of natural gas, electricity, and heat in the Netherlands”). Together, they rely on the thousands of wind turbines spread out among the Dutch landscape to supply the wind energy to all running electric trains.As states in Forbes, the NS “carries 600,000 people per day, and rely on around 1.2 billion kWh of electricity per year-all of which is now done using wind energy” which is pretty sweet!
While this achievement is great, and sets an important example many other countries will hopefully follow-the Netherlands still has a long way to go in order for it to be fully ‘green’. Yes, they have been relying on wind energy, to an extent, for hundreds of years; there really are more bicycles than people; and it really is the home of Greenpeace, etc. But they have some of the “highest carbon emissions per capita (among the highest in Europe)”, according to the World Bank, making the Netherlands far less green than many assume. However, the NS converting entirely to wind energy is a large step, and hopefully this achievement will result in a number of other companies following their lead, and switching to renewable, and sustainable energy in the near future.
Link to video made by the NS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APh2U1dI6H4&feature=youtu.be