The Netherlands has an ambitious new energy goal: The country wants its entire electric rail system to run on 100% wind power within three years.


Railway Technology reports that Dutch energy company Eneco and the VIVENS rail companies signed a deal to make Dutch electric trains within Netherlands Railways run entirely on energy produced by wind farms. Wind farms already supply half of the 1,800-mile, 1.5kV DC network’s energy—a network that carries 1.2 million passengers a day.

The wind power will come from within the Netherlands, as well as Belgium and some Scandinavian nations; part of the objective is to promote increased renewable energy adoption in other European countries.


In the last few years, wind power has seen rapid growth in adoption worldwide. According to the International Energy Council, the land-based wind power installation rate has gone up around 24% annually every year since 2000. The council predicts that if world governments stick to plan, wind power could account for 18% of all energy production globally.



Back in the Netherlands, Eneco says it also entered a 10-year deal with Google to make its data center in the northern part of the country totally powered by wind farm energy as well.

[Railway Technology via TechXplore and Popular Science]

Image: Netherlands Railways, via Shutterstock