Hello folks! We took a long break, isn’t it? I’m happy to be back here and bring you an amazing energy neutral residential tower in the city of Almere, Netherlands that bagged an award at the latest design competition for urban villas and a residential tower for the Cascade Park. This unique tower is the brainchild of Faro architecten bv housing about 57 residences.

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The Dutch city of Heerlen is not a name that is familiar to the world. But geothermal energy and old coal mines seem to have put the city on the map and for the world to take notice. The Dutch city now has the world’s first and only operational geothermal power station that is powered by water heated in old coalmine shafts. While most of the old coal mines that no longer produce coal are abandoned and rendered useless, the Dutch have found a unique way to use them. A coal mine flooding with water is generally considered a disaster, but this one is boon to the planet.

Water is pumped down into the deserted shafts at depths of over 800 meters. Here water is heated to a temperature of around 35 degrees centigrade by the natural heat of the earth’s interior. This water is sufficient to power around 350 homes on a daily basis. The technology is pretty awesome and cuts out carbon emissions by 55% when compared to regular power production methods. While only cities and towns that are close to abandoned shafts can use this method, it still is petty welcome in terms of novelty.

Maybe in future we could build underground tunnels across the planet to harness geothermal energy in this very specific fashion. The idea has great potential and hopefully others will follow the Dutch in execution.
Via:� Cleantechnica

This might be the largest biomass power plant in the world that runs only and only on chicken manure. Netherlands has come up with an innovative eco-friendly method which is expected to provide renewable electricity to somewhere around 90,000 households.

With a capacity of 36.5 megawatts, the biomass plant will generate more than 270 million kWh of electricity per year. Insiders reveal that the plant is a good way to get rid of the chicken manure, which if spread over the farm land would release a massive amount of CO2 as well as methane.
In other words, the plant is more than just ‘carbon neutral’. It will use up approximately 440,000 tons of chicken manure, which is one third of the total chicken manure produced in Netherlands every year. Indeed a good way to get rid of pollution by excess of different kinds of animal manure, a problem faced by many agrarian economies.
Via enn

We have human-powered bikes, cars, MP3 players and even Gymnasiums and so many across the world are exploring more such avenues where we expend a lot of energy which can be tapped in to. This is truly turning out to be a great concept as we are now turning in to batteries and that is a real good thing. The principle of modern clean energy is that, ‘Energy conserved is Energy produced’. So you when the lights start flickering, the music starts pumping and… Well, I will stop there. The point is when you hit the Dance Club; plenty of energy is wasted on nothing. Not anymore though, as a club in Holland is showing the way.

Rotterdam’s WATT club features a dance floor where the disco lights become more dynamic as patrons get their groove on. The floor even has a meter to show people how much energy they’re producing at any given moment. WATT contains more than just electricity producing dance floor. Drinks are stored in basement tanks to save energy by using a central cooling system and toilets in the club flush with rainwater. The so-called “pee experience” lets patrons watch rooftop rainwater travel through transparent pipes when they flush. How amazingly cool is that? The Loo sounds much better than the club itself!

There is already such a cool green club in London and it apparently also allows customers in for free if they come on foot and do not use carbon-emitting vehicles. Of course, that needs some proving as well. WATT in Rotterdam is following the footsteps of the London based green club. Hopefully there will be more clubs across the world that will join in and have that cool flushing mechanism. Fluid in Motion- Awesome!

Via Cleantechnica

The Dutch are famous for being creative and creating their unique brand of everything. From the Orange Army that floods everywhere they go to the style of ‘Total Football’ that they have adopted. They are all about doing things in a grand different way and apparently their idea if recycling Chicken poop is also pretty huge. The Dutch have opened the world’s largest biomass power plant running exclusively on chicken manure. The $225 million project is owned and operated by multi-utility company Delta. The facility will deliver renewable electricity to 90,000 households.

The unique plant actually solves a very serious problem that has been plaguing the Dutch since long. For decades now the Dutch have been processing chicken manure at a very high cost and have had a tough time dealing with it. Now they ca just put it all in their brand new plant and make energy out of it. In that sense, this is both an ecological and economic investment for the nation.

The biomass power plant will utilize approximately 440,000 tons of chicken manure, roughly one third of the total amount produced each year in the Netherlands. The biomass power plant is more than merely “carbon neutral”. If the chicken manure were to be spread out over farm land, it would release not only CO2, but also methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. By using the manure for power generation, the release of methane is avoided. With a capacity of more than 270 million kWh of electricity per year, it will solve two problems in one go.

Via Nextenergynews