Airports across Holland will run entirely on renewable energy generated in the country starting next year.
It follows a deal announced today between airport owners Royal Schiphol Group and energy firm Eneco, who will provide 200 GWh of clean power annually for the next 15 years. While this begins on 1 January 2018, it will ultimately be newly built wind farms that supply the airports in the years ahead. Schiphol, Eindhoven Airport, Rotterdam, The Hague Airport and Lelystad Airport will all be powered by these new Eneco Dutch wind farms in the long term.
Jeroen de Haas, CEO of Eneco Group hailed Royal Schiphol Group for “consciously choosing new, sustainable forms of production”.
Vianen will be the first of the new wind farms to provide power to the airports when it becomes operational from January 2018. The remainder needed to power all the airports will be doing so by January 2020. Up until then it will come from the country’s existing clean energy sources.
“For our new energy contract, we wanted nothing but sustainable power generated in the Netherlands. After all, one thing is certain: aviation can and must be made more sustainable. We feel that the most important elements of this collaboration with Eneco are that all the Schiphol Group airports are involved and that additional sustainable energy sources will be developed in the Netherlands. This will allow our airports to increase their sustainability and offer economic benefits,” added Jos Nijhuis, President and CEO of Royal Schiphol Group.
