Netherlands to power railways entirely with wind power by 2018

An agreement recently signed in The Netherlands is expected to switch the country’s railway network entirely to wind power by 2018.

The said agreement has been signed by Power company Eneco and VIVENS, an energy procurement joint venture comprising Netherlands Railways (NS), Veolia, Arriva, Connexxion, and rail freight firms.

Currently, close to half the electric trains in the Netherlands operate entirely on wind power. One of the terms of the agreement is to get 50 percent of the electric trains on NS fleet running on wind power by end of this year.

Railway Technology reports that about half the traction power on the 2,900km ProRail 1.5kV DC network is powered by electricity generated by wind turbines.

The total annual consumption of the network is about 1.4 terawatt hours.

The new renewable energy contract is believed to be among the biggest yet signed in Europe.

Ajith Kumar S

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