All Electric Dutch Trains Now Run 100% On Wind Power

Starting on January 1st, all electric trains in the Netherlands are powered 100% by clean, renewable wind energy.

In 2015, Dutch railway companies teamed up with Eneco, the sustainable energy company responsible for providing most of the natural gas, electricity, and heat in the Netherlands. Since trains create exponentially more carbon emissions than cars, the companies set a goal for their transportation to be 100% powered by renewable energy by 2018.

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Completion of the goal one year ahead of schedule is reportedly thanks to the construction of new wind farms in Finland, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The Dutch train company NS alone ferries over 600,000 people per day, which equals to about 1.2 billion kWh of electricity per year –  about the same amount of electricity used by all of the households in Amsterdam.

Enabling such a quick, dramatic readjustment to their carbon footprint will hopefully work as inspiration for other railway companies worldwide.

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