Whereas in 2022 we were still struggling with historically high energy costs, this year we have the opposite. The flag is flying at the Mission Zero Centre of Expertise. ‘It is great that we are already reaping the benefits of the foresight of the early 2020s,’ says leading professor Sander Mertens. ‘The smart combination of solar and wind energy is absolutely the basis for the successful energy transition,’ he says. ‘Because we started coordinating our natural energy sources, we now generate our energy in real time almost all year round. That saves a lot on energy storage and transport costs, and we see it reflected in our energy bills!’

Local, clean, efficient and permanent

Apart from the low costs, there is a much greater benefit. All the energy we use in our country is generated sustainably. ‘We used to have sustainably produced solar energy, but we couldn't always use it due to our overloaded power grid,’ Mertens explains. ‘The result was that we had to rely on energy from coal-fired power stations, often based abroad. But fortunately, that is a thing of the past. The Netherlands can now supply its own energy locally, cleanly, efficiently and permanently. It is good that we have increased our use of wind energy and switched to direct current. We still haven't had to reinforce the energy grid!’

Read more

Does this article raise any questions? Read our white paper on solar and wind energy and learn how we can make this bright future a reality!  

The month of energy transition stamp