AkzoNobel, DSM, Google and Philips receive first power from new Dutch wind farm Bouwdokken
AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals, DSM, Google, and Philips have started receiving power from the Bouwdokken wind farm in the Netherlands – a milestone achievement resulting from a unique green energy purchasing consortium they jointly established. All four companies consume a substantial amount of power in the Netherlands, and by working together they are making a significant contribution to delivering on the Netherlands’ renewable energy target of 14% by 2020.
In October 2016 and January 2017, the companies signed two long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) that enabled construction of two Dutch wind farm projects – Krammer and Bouwdokken. These wind farms, both of which are located in the southwest of the Netherlands, have a total capacity of over 140 MW, enough to power approximately 140,000 households.
It is the first time that a group of multinationals in the Netherlands has teamed up to negotiate long-term PPAs directly with project developers, bypassing the involvement of an energy utility company. Simon Braaksma, Senior Director of Group Sustainability at Philips said: “As a purpose-driven health technology company, a healthy planet is central to our mission, and we are making good progress to decouple economic growth from our environmental impact. All our operations in the United States are already powered by wind energy, and through this unique consortium, also our operations in the Netherlands will soon be completely powered by green electricity.”
When both Dutch windfarms are fully operational, 100% of Philips’ activities in the Netherlands will be powered by Dutch wind energy, an important milestone in the company’s ambition to become carbon neutral by 2020.
The Bouwdokken wind farm is owned by E-Connection on the Neeltje Jans artificial island, which is part of the so-called Delta Works – a series of construction projects that protect the southwest of the Netherlands from the sea. Wind Cooperation Zeeuwind is a 25% shareholder of the wind farm, which consists of 7 turbines of 4.2 megawatts each.
