First turbines start spinning at new Royal Schiphol Group wind farm

WIND POWER: The deal was struck in August last year

The operator of Amsterdam Schiphol and Rotterdam The Hague airports has opened a wind farm to supply green energy to all its airports.

The Royal Schiphol Group worked with sustainable energy provider Eneco and the municipality of Vianen to build three wind turbines, two of which will provide for the Schiphol Group.

This supply amounts to around 20 GWh per year, which is comparable to the annual energy consumption of 17,000 households.

Eneco will build more wind turbines for Royal Schiphol Group over the next two years, so that by January 2020 all of the power for the airport company will come from newly constructed Dutch wind farms.

The news follows the announcement in August 2017 that the group had struck a deal with Eneco for 200GWh of green energy every year for 15 years.

Since 1 January 2018, Eneco has been supplying Schiphol, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Eindhoven Airport and Lelystad Airport with sustainable power. Together, the airports consume around 200 GWh, which is comparable to the consumption of 60,000 households, or the size of Haarlemmermeer or Delft.

The long-term contract with Royal Schiphol Group enables Eneco to invest in new wind farms. This means Schiphol will not be drawing power from the existing sustainable energy network. It will also increase the total supply of sustainable power in the Netherlands.

The names of the wind turbines that will supply energy to the airports were announced yesterday (April 16). Primary schools from Vianen submitted suggestions for the names. The winning entries were ‘Flying Electric’ from Egbertus primary school and ‘Green Tower’ from OBS Tijl Uilenspiegel.

Eneco is exploring the possibilities for offering the excess green energy from the wind farm – approximately 10 GWh – to residents of Vianen. The municipality of Vianen is also benefiting from the wind farm’s presence, as Eneco will be contributing €30,000 each year to a spatial quality fund. Residents of Vianen can submit their own ideas for how to spend the fund, provided that it benefits outdoor areas.