& Innovation
The Netherlands is facing some serious challenges: the climate is changing, the sea level is rising, greenhouses gases must drastically be reduced and the economy has to be transformed.
Preparing the Netherlands for a safe and sustainable future requires more than strong dams and dykes alone. Of course, wind mills, solar farms, megawatt batteries and high-speed trains across Europe are part of the solution, but more is needed. With its location and conditions, the Afsluitdijk is a perfect testing ground for all sorts of innovations in the fields of energy, economy and nature. The technologies that have been developed, tested and implemented at the dyke can also be applied elsewhere, if proven successful.
How will the Afsluitdijk drive the Netherlands forward?
The government and the provinces bordering on the Afsluitdijk see the renovation as an opportunity to launch innovative projects involving delta technology, nature and energy.
For example, by using special concrete blocks, so-called Levvel blocs that were specially designed for the Afsluitdijk, 35 percent less concrete is used. The blocks are made from different innovative concrete mixtures. The Afsluitdijk acts as a testing ground; the blocks are extensively tested in extreme conditions. This way, the whole sector can learn from the results.
The Nieuwe Afsluitdijk execution plan is brimming with plans for innovative nature and energy projects. The fish migration river, the Blue Energy pilot plant and the Wadden Center have now been realised. Promising projects like a demo centre for tidal energy and an off-grid test centre to couple and store different renewable energy sources were cancelled.
the Innovators
As a Research and Development engineer at REDstack, Hendrik Swart (27) is concerned with developing the technology to harvest blue energy. He examines and tests new applications for existing technology.
Hendrik: ‘I think the nice thing about this technology is that it uses free energy. The raw material is free and always available. By harvesting it, you put it to use. We’re currently doing this at the Afsluitdijk, but you can produce blue energy in many places around the world. Also, for example, by using waste flows with high saline concentrates. We recently started a pilot at a desalination plant in Spain, using their waste flow to generate Blue Energy. I think this is cool, as it’s a double-edged sword.’
‘I like to contribute to the transition to a sustainable future. And being a Frisian, I feel a strong connection with the water: I was raised by the water and I love sailing and ice skating. In my work, these two interests merge.’
‘Even when there’s no wind or sunshine, Blue Energy always works’
What is Blue Energy?
Blue Energy is energy extracted from the difference in saline concentrates in salt and fresh water. The REDstack technology is based on reverse electrodialysis. In the blue energy plant at the Afsluitdijk, fresh water is led along salt water. The two are separated by membranes (very thin sheets) that let pass either chloride or sodium atoms. As a result, the positive sodium ions flow to one side and the negative chloride ions to the other. The difference in charge this creates generates electricity.
Where can it be applied?
Blue Energy can be harvested everywhere where salt and fresh water exist side by side. Globally, river deltas can meet a substantial part of the electricity demand. In industrial processes with waterflows with different saline concentrates, blue energy can also be produced.
How sustainable is Blue Energy?
The advantage of Blue Energy is that it is permanently available. Even when there is no wind or sunshine, water flows permanently. The raw materials are free and unlimited, so blue energy can be produced continuously and without emitting greenhouse gases. Independent research around the test installation shows that a blue energy plant has little to no impact on the ecology. And the visual and acoustic impact are also next to zero, according to REDstack’s Pieter Hack. ‘A blue energy plant does not have any rotor blades or chimneys. It is barely taller than the dyke and doesn’t produce any noise.’
What is the potential of Blue Energy?
Based on the quantity of river water flowing out in the Netherlands, Blue Energy can provide for twelve percent of the Dutch energy demand. And up to twelve percent of the global power consumption can also be sustainably generated this way.
the Innovators
Catarina Simões (26) is a PhD student at Wetsus. She is researching how the process of generating energy with reverse electrodialysis can be made more efficient and sustainable.
Catarina: ‘I have always been interested in water technology. In 2018, I came to the Netherlands from Portugal to do a master at Wetsus, the European centre of excellence for sustainable water technology in Leeuwarden. Without any plans to pursue a PhD, I saw a position on Blue Energy opening at Wetsus and decided to apply for it. The subject and the opportunity to collaborate with REDstack were appealing to me. I’m a conscious person; I try to live as sustainably as possible and like to carry it through in my professional life. This is not a research limited to the laboratory. I can put it into practice and thus contribute to a better world. The opportunity to work at such an iconic place as the Afsluitdijk makes it even more appealing.’
‘I’ve only got seven months to go before I have to hand in my thesis. After that, all options will be open. But I know one thing for sure: If we can prove here that with Blue Energy you can generate power on a large scale, I’m at the beginning of a great career.’
The future of sustainable innovations
From solar ovens to hydrogen and tidal energy, there are many new technologies to generate power. But many sustainable projects only get as far as an experiment or a test installation. What’s this like for Blue Energy?
The Netherlands fails to seize the opportunities in marketing sustainable innovations. As a result, promising technologies grind to a halt while they are indispensable for accelerating the energy transition, according to the FME, the employers’ organisation for the technology industry, in an interview with BNR News Radio.
Sixty percent of the solar panels world-wide is based on technology developed in the Netherlands, but the Netherlands imports solar panels from China on a massive scale. The Dutch windmill industry is largely in Danish hands. And Tocardo, the turbine manufacturer that experimented with renewable energy from tidal energy at the Afsluitdijk, was taken over by a British-Scottish joint venture. Consequently, the demo station that had been planned for the Afsluitdijk was cancelled.
‘A Blue Energy plant doesn’t have any rotor blades or chimneys. It’s barely taller than the dyke and doesn’t produce any noise’Pieter Hack,
Owner REDstack
At the same Afsluitdijk, in 2014, amid great optimism, REDstack’s pilot plant was officially opened by the King. Two years later, the cabinet appointed the company a National Icon: ‘a pioneering technology that helps to solve social problems in the world. The innovation clearly proved itself in the testing phase, but scaling it up presents a few challenges, says owner Pieter Hack. REDstack is in the Valley of Death, as it is called in innovation terms. Hack: ‘The investment for scaling up to the large demo installation is just as big as the research we have done so far. And now we see financiers scratching their heads: Will we recover the money?’
The main goal is clear: REDstack wants to realise Blue Energy stations world-wide. But to get there, funding is required. While Hack is talking to investors from around the world, the company itself conceived a spin-off to contribute to the further development of blue energy: water desalination. An existing market, says Hack, ‘so we don’t have to develop it ourselves.’ Our RED technology is based on reverse desalination technology. Now, we reverse it once more and what do we see? Thanks to the know-how we have gained in recent years, our equipment works far better than what is currently on the market.’
Meanwhile, Hack keeps lobbying the government. Because he finds it hard to understand: the energy transition is urgent. How is it possible that energy from water did not end up in the Energy Agreement for Sustainable Growth? ‘Blue Energy has the largest potential as an alternative source of renewable energy, but time and again it doesn’t fit the national subsidy framework.’
the Innovators
Jordi Moreno (36) works at REDstack as a Research and Development process technologist. He investigates problems and develops solutions – indispensable when bringing a technology from the lab to reality.
Jordi: ‘I obtained my degree with my work on Blue Energy at the Wetsus research institute in Leeuwarden. They selected me from one hundred candidates from around the world. I started with a test setup in the lab, but the real breakthrough came in 2014, when the Blue Energy pilot plant at the Afsluitdijk was opened. Science promptly turned into reality. This presented a few challenges: We were faced with water that was far more turbid, with algae and ice, and the salt composition turned out to be different than in the lab. In these instances, I try to understand what happens and look for a solution.’
‘Technologists develop something in the lab, others subsequently take it to the next level. I have the luxury that I’m able to do both. I see myself as an applied researcher: I apply scientific knowledge, so something can change in the world. Many people told me: ‘Blue Energy is going nowhere.’ Here at the Afsluitdijk, we are proving them wrong. With Blue Energy, we can make a real contribution to the energy transition.’
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