Every Dutch electric train on the national railway now runs on 100% wind power after NS Dutch Railways partnered with energy company Eneco to use its wind turbines to generate the energy needed to power the nation's electric trains.
The eco-friendly ‘green trains’ began to run exclusively on wind power on January 1, 2017, a year earlier than planned thanks to the recent jump in the number of wind farms in the Netherlands.
A joint NS Dutch Railways/Eneco website said that the 100% wind powered national train network can transport 600,000 passengers daily by carbon neutral travel.
The website also stated that these passengers are the first in the world to travel by 100% wind power.
The NS-Eneco website also highlights that an NS Dutch Railways train can drive one kilometre on three strokes of an Eneco windmill, while the windmill running for an hour can power the train for 120 miles.
To make this renewable energy-powered transport system a reality, NS Dutch Railways and Eneco invested in windfarms and other green energy production.
Ten year wind power deal
Dutch electricity company Eneco won a tender offered by NS Dutch Railways in 2015, with the two companies signing a ten-year deal with January 2018 the target date for all NS Dutch Railways’ electric trains to run on wind energy, a target date which was reached one year early.
NS Dutch Railways consumes 1.2 billion kWh of wind electricity annually which, the two companies claim on their joint website, is the equivalent to the amount of energy all houses in Amsterdam consume each year.
NS Dutch Railways operates about 5,500 train trips a day and plans to add more fuel-efficient trains annually. The company said it plans to with the reduce the energy used per passenger by a further 35% by 2020 compared with 2005.
To celebrate the milestone achievement, NS Dutch Railways CEO, Roger van Boxtel, strapped himself to a windmill blade to show his excitement for a new clean energy milestone. Check out the video below courtesy of Vocativ.
