Provincie Drenthe bezoekt Duurzaam Ameland voor inspiratie energietransitie

Sorry, this entry is only available in Dutch.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Dutch.

Ameland is working on the energy system of the future in various ways. Among others, through the European IANOS project and Covenant Sustainable Ameland. On Friday 2 September, project partners from these two initiatives met on Ameland. The aim? To inform each other and talk about the latest developments.

IANOS project

IANOS stands for ‘Integrated Solutions For Decarbonisation and Smartification of Islands’. Through the IANOS project, Ameland is working with other European islands to develop an ICT platform called a Virtual Power Plant. Through the Virtual Power Plant, the intention is to cleverly link the generation of sustainable energy (e.g. Ameland Solar Park, the solar panels on the homes of residents and entrepreneurs, hybrid heat pumps) to the demand for energy. This is advantageous because the use of locally sustainably generated energy can then be maximised.

Step by step

The development of the Virtual Power Plant is proceeding step by step. To arrive at the ICT platform, for instance, technology is needed that can read how much power is generated at which installation. For a good balance between supply and demand for sustainable energy, it may be useful to temporarily ‘switch off’ locations where sustainable energy is generated or store it in a battery or as hydrogen. This then requires offsetting revenues and costs. Thus, the platform ultimately consists of many facets that need to communicate with each other in the right way.

Project partners

Some of the project partners present gave an update on their part in the IANOS project. TNO explained how to arrive at a smart model and connections between energy system components. ReFlex addressed how to connect installations to ICT software. RePowered talked about the commercial side and marketing of green energy. The AEC paid attention to communication and participation on Ameland and the 2Token project. SeaQurrent gave an update on the development of the Tidal Kite. SUWOTEC talked about the battery they are developing to store renewable energy. Municipality of Ameland discussed the sustainability programme with which the municipality gives direction to its frontrunner ambition.

With the P1-Meter, you can easily track how and where you use energy in your home and make changes to reduce usage. Then, of course, it’s helpful to know what the graphs in the accompanying app mean.

Supply / return per day
The examples below involve a home with solar panels. The energy price for both delivery and return delivery is set at €0.25 per kWh. This can be seen in the top left of the images below. In purple is the delivery of kWh for that day. In green, it is the supply of solar energy back to the grid. The app that accompanies the P1 meter calculates what that day’s energy costs or yields. This is also shown in the upper left corner of the image.

Below are four examples.

Example 1: basic consumption over a day

The image above shows the basic consumption between 00:00-07:00 and after 22:00; that is refrigerators, freezers, central heating pumps and standby consumption of, for example, a TV or an appliance on the charger. At 07:15, a peak can be seen from a kettle. At about 10:00 a.m. the sun hits the solar panels and is delivered back to the grid (the green line). At 11:00 another appliance turns on that requires more power than is supplied by the solar panels. By 6:00 p.m. electric cooking is going on. After that, peaks can be seen from a washing machine and dryer.

Example 2: solar energy
The image below shows a beautiful sunny day. Because there are trees in front of the panels, a ‘ragged’ graph is created. Again, a large ‘wax peak’ in the evening is visible.

Example 3: distorted image due to scaling
The image below shows a good example of a distorted picture. The zoomed-in graph makes the electricity demand look enormously erratic, but this is because the scale in the graph is twice as small as the previous example. Example two shows +2000 on the right, while example three shows +1000 here. So the graph is zoomed in more, making the differences appear larger. It is important to keep an eye on the scaling; the app itself divides the graph, so one day may appear violent in terms of peaks while little energy was used.

Example 4: saving on energy through current insight

Selecting “Now” at the bottom of the app will create a live profile of consumption or generation. The base load above is about 1,200 watts. By turning on a device, in this case a halogen lamp, we see the consumption go up. After about 10 seconds the lamp is off again, from the graph we can see how much power the lamp requires; +/- 1,550 minus 1,250 = 300 Watts. On average, a lamp is on for about 1,000 hours a year in the living room. This lamp consumes 300 kWh per year of electricity, which costs €75 each year. By replacing this bulb with a 20 watt LED bulb, which produces the same amount of light, the cost goes down to €5.00 per year. By looking at electrical appliances in this way, a lot of money can be saved.

The Nederlandse Aardoliemaatschappij (NAM) has been producing natural gas near Ameland since the 1980s. The production sites (two platforms at sea and one land location) used part of the extracted natural gas to generate electricity for their own installations. NAM has now modernized the installations at all the locations on Ameland. In the process, they have become fully electric, which is very unusual for an offshore installation. The completion was celebrated at the Ameland Nature Center.

Example of corporate social responsibility

Director of NAM, Mr. Johan Atema opened the day. He talked about the interaction between NAM and the island. A fine example of social entrepreneurship: by coordination, the activities have been and are taking into account the area, nature and people. Johan Atema also emphasized the relevance of natural gas extraction, which is equivalent to the heat demand of the entire province of Friesland.

Electrification comprehensive project in protected nature 

The electrification was a multi-year project with various modifications on land, in the dunes and on the seabed; all work in protected nature. Herbert Goorhuis, Operations & Maintenance Lead NAM and Erik Kugel, Project Manager at Boskalis told about the different phases in the project. First, an electricity cable was laid from the village of Buren to the land location and then from the land location through the seabed to the large platform offshore. At the same time, NAM carried out major maintenance. The Amelander firms Spoelstra and Nagtegaal also performed work. NAM now uses green electricity instead of raw natural gas for the production sites. This avoids significant emissions of CO2 and NOx.

Nature impact study

Mr. Johan Krol, Ecologist at the Nature Center closed the morning program and talked about the subsidence and sedimentation research in the salt marsh. With the measurements of recent years, no subsidence of the salt marsh is observed.

Handing over check for sustainable schools program

To celebrate the electrification of AWG -1, NAM handed over two checks. The one of 37,500 euros was for the Amelander Museums, to support making the museums more sustainable. The second check was presented to Mayor Leo Pieter Stoel by Johan Atema and Jan van der Tempel of the DOB Academy. That 25,000 euros is a joint gift from DOB (De Oude Bibliotheek in Delft) and NAM and is intended for the rollout of a sustainable schools program on Ameland.

Presentation of the check for the teaching program. From left to right: Johan Atema (NAM director), Jan van der Tempel (founder DOB Academy) and Leo Pieter Stoel (mayor of Ameland). 

Energy wall updated

On the occasion of electrification, the energy wall that describes the development of energy on Ameland in the Nature Center has been updated.

Energy wall at the Ameland Nature Center

From development to realisation; after 2,5 years of implementation, the Island of Mallorca has already the first renewable hydrogen buses on the road. Read more in their fifth news letter.

Aim of the Green Hysland project is to produce at least 300 tons of green hydrogen from solar energy and distribute it to different end-user applications on the island of Mallorca. Underlying idea is that green hydrogen can support European islands in their energy transition, and accelerate their decarbonisation. The experiences gained in Mallorca are of interest to many other islands. Ameland is also involved in Green Hysland and is also experimenting with hydrogen applications through pilot projects.

How much gas do you use when showering? What is the standby consumption of your appliances at night? The P1-Meter gives you instant detailed insight into your power consumption, feed-in and gas. It helps to make changes to save energy and thus keep energy bills under control.

Free via Dorpsbelang

Over the past few months, free P1 meters made available by the municipality of Ameland have been distributed via Dorpsbelang. By now, over 800 meters have been handed out and about 400 are still available. Also want a P1 meter?

Contact your Dorpsbelang by sending them an email.

Hollum: dorpsbelanghollumameland@gmail.com
Ballum: dorpsbelangballum@gmail.com
Nes: info@dorpsbelangnes.nl
Buren: info@dorpsbelangburen.nl

Connecting a P1-Meter

The P1-Meter clicks into the port of your smart meter and connects to the Wi-Fi. Then you give the device permission to collect the data and send it to the app, giving you instant insight into your energy consumption in the app. This data is only available to you! The P1 meter works with all smart meters. Just click, connect to wifi and done.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Dutch and German.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Dutch.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Dutch.