The climate accord aims to generate 70% of its electricity sustainably. In the Netherlands, significant strides are being made to achieve this, for example, by installing more wind turbines on land and at sea, and by constructing more solar panels and solar farms. But does this mean the Netherlands is on track to meet the climate agreement’s objective? How much energy do we actually generate daily? Where does this energy come from? And how much does our energy consumption vary per day, month, or year? To answer these questions, Energieopwek.nl was founded, one of Entrance’s tools. We spoke with Martien Visser, lecturer in energy networks and founder of Energieopwek.nl.
“Energieopwek.nl is a website, an application really, where you can track in Realtime how much sustainable energy is being produced in the Netherlands. The application contains data of all sustainable energy sources and once began with the question I always asked to students. The question was: how much solar energy do you think is being generated at this moment?” Martien Visser says. “Students were engaging in discussions, took wild guesses, but I did not have the actual answer to the question as well. At that moment, I realized I needed to find the answer.”
Martien Visser developed a model to process KNMI-data to calculate how much solar power could be generated. Once per month he downloaded the hourly data of KNMI-measuring stations and came into contact with Ed Nijpels, chairman of the energy agreement of SER, who was looking for the application built by Visser. Thanks to the sponsoring of TenneT, Gasunie, and Netbeheer Nederland, Visser was able to automate the system, allowing Energieopwek to receive data from around 40 KNMI stations, both onshore and offshore, every 10 minutes. Dycon, a software company founded by alumni of Groningen Hanze university of applied sciences builds and professionally maintains this application. Martien says that the models are still being improved by research to this day.
“Energieopwek also has some great spin-offs, like a customized version for Campina Friesland that allows farmers to look up how much energy is being generated on their farms and in their factories. TenneT and Gasunie have also built a CO2 monitoring system that anyone can look up and shows how much CO2 is emitted per kWh of electricity produced in the Netherlands at any given moment. This, for example, allows people to do their laundry at moments when the air is cleanest,” Visser proudly explains.
Energy-(weather) forecast
Martien explains that the Energieopwek application can provide a kind of real-time forecast, similar to a weather forecast app, but for renewable energy instead. It raises awareness and adds nuance to perspectives on the energy transition. By publicizing monthly data to the press, the SET ensures information reaches people who might not otherwise encounter it. Last year, Visser has also collaborated with the Dutch Association for Sustainable Energy (NVDE) on the energy weather report, where they used weather forecasts to test their models. The sponsors and the NVDE are working to regularly publish the weather forecast. “By connecting data from Energieopwek to weather, it becomes very visual for people, allowing them to adjust their behavior in the future based on forecasts. On sunny days for example, by turning on the laundry machine and the dishwasher. “This could be a great example of how technological developments can impact changes in behavior.” Visser concludes.
