Dutch face hard fight to find new power sources

Press, 14 November 1977, Page 28

Dutch face hard fight to find new power sources

By RUTH E. GRUBER, of United Press International, through NZPA The Hague

Dutch researchers are experimenting with huge, turbine-driving windmills as one of man., methods they hope will be able to combat a real and chilling problem for the future of the Netherlands: The country’s huge natural gas reserves — some 2000 billion cubic metres — will probably run out about the turn of the century.

Natural gas was discovered under the Dutch northern provinces around Groningen and under the North Sea in 1959, and it went on the market in 1963.

Today, just 14 years later, Dutch natural gas takes care of about 52 per cent of the country’s energy needs — including heating 93 per cent of all Dutch homes and producing about 80 per cent of the country’s electricity. In addition, the Netherlands is under contract to export about 50 per cent of its gas reserves to other Common Market countries.

Revenues from sales at home and abroad contributed more than 8 per cent of the entire Dutch budget in 1975, and, according to a spokesman for Gasunie, the company in charge of the purchase and supply of gas, give the Netherlands a balance-of-payments surplus. “Our natural gas is a national treasure,” said a spokesman for the Economics Affairs Ministry. Experts hold little hope for the discovery of additional gas reserves in the area, and to try to maintain the existing “treasure” for as long as possible the Government has launched a programme aimed at cutting gas consumption, conserving existing reserves, and importing foreign gas. A huge advertising campaign to spur energy conservation has been underway for the last two years, combined with other measures such as

Government subsidies for home insulation and changes in supply policy ' that will favour small consumers and gradually cut back against power stations and non-priority industry. Gas exports also are being wound down. Existing contracts will be honoured, but no new ones •will be concluded, and exports are expected to fall off sharply after 1985 and virtually cease by 1994.

“These and other measures will help allow people to use gas at home until the year 2000,” said the spokesman for Gasunie, owned in part by private oil companies and in part by State agencies. “Our number one priority is home use.”

The Dutch also plan on raising gas prices to deter use.

The Netherlands used 43.7 billion cubic metres of gas domestically in 1976, compared with 1.7 billion cubic metres in 1965. With exports included the figures were 94.9 billion cubic metres, compared with 1.8 billion. In 1963, gas authorities had estimated that the country would use domestically less than 20 billion cubic metres of gas in 1975. “In 1970 we were already using what we had predicted would be the 1975 figure,” the Gasunie spokesman said.

Natural gas is clean, efficient, and cheap — about 30 per cent or more lower than other fuels —. and the Dutch began

changing over even before the 1973 oil crisis sparked a wider-scale switch from oil. Researchers are experimenting with new ways of producing energy for that day when the gas reserves are finally exhausted. These include experiments on coal and coal gasification, solar energy, harnessing of the tides, nuclear power plants (under fire from environmental groups) — and windmills. The windmills, however traditional, are not at

present being taken seriously as a large-scale energy producer — and are also under criticism from environmentalists.

“There would be difficulties for windmill use on a large scale,” the Economic Affairs Ministry spokesman said. “You would need a very large surface for the new type of windmill connected to turbines, and you would need about 500 windmills to replace one ordinary electric power plant. “In addition, the new windmills on such a scale would be ugly and noisy, an' at best,” he said, “they would produce only a few per cent of our energy needs.”