It's been raining since Thursday...
We have kids this weekend, so Janny has been trying to keep them busy. She had to work because one of our regular workers was sick. It makes for a long weekend for Boeke and me.
Sunday morning is now dry - so they'll get outside as soon as possible - as will I!
Expecting rain and strong winds this afternoon and possibly snow during the week...
I could help out by lighting the fire, cooking dinner and keeping one of the boys busy for a while playing table tennis.
Strangely, it took me back to Darwin - playing table tennis with the Police Commissioner - funny how the mind works in linking things - so many years and almost a world apart - and the path in between.
The 3 Aussie boats...
Last Sunday, we went for a drive to check them out...
Jacoba is booked on 2 March to come out of the water, so that we can check the propeller. If anything needs to be done (a new propeller or the pitch altered on the existing one), it should be organised within a week and then she'll go back in the water and as soon as possible I'll do a trip to Dokkum, just to check everything out.Putting the door handles back on...
Dusting off my old (but seldom used) bike. I'm planning to take it on the France-or-bust trip, even though it will take up more room than a folding bike. I swore off folding bikes after the last trip :-)
I'm also figuring out how to fasten the jerry can, in case we have to get fuel in a remote place. I'll get some saddle bags for shopping. As I think about it, it may well be good practice to fill up at any and every opportunity along the way...
Still considering The Canal des Ardennes...but this will be a joint decision as we get closer, and as we learn what is actually passable...
Around the farm...
One of the clients made some racks for some of our windfall accessories...
Gas!
We had some good news with ONE of our gas meters - the one supplying the apartments and our Day Activity/Kids area - we halved our gas use and because the energy company had kept putting the price up (as they are allowed and wont to do) - we actually got half of the money back! (just over €6000.00)
They also recalculated our monthly pre-payment (for 2023) based on 2022 - it will still mean that we all have to continue with our austerity measures, but it has proved to be worth it, as I am now able to pass some of it on to the residents. It is really a matter of getting rid of some bad habits and being more aware of just what we can live with...not such a bad thing.
We're still waiting on the final figures for our private meter and the electricity for the whole place. The electricity will be a bit of a killer, I think, as we all tried something other than gas...
Which is a nice segue to... Janny has been investigating whether or not we can buy all of the solar panels on our roof. We "own" 40 of them, but no money has yet changed hands as we are paying them off (on paper) as we go. We want to at least buy our own and as many of the others that people are willing to sell. The original benefit of buying them is not so evident now and so the corporation was going to buy them back - which is where Janny stepped in to ask if we could buy them instead...no definite answer on that yet...
Janny found out that the panels on our roof produced 55.7mWh for the year (or 55,700kWh).
Our overall consumption is 17000kWh. It might appear self-evident that it is a good idea...BUT there a few problems - the electricity company "buys" it at one price and "sells" it back to us at a higher price - my head hurts when I try to figure all this out - it seems heavily weighted against the consumer or at least in favour of the big businesses. We would, in fact, be a supplier but the price is totally controlled by others...
...and then there is still the capacity of the grid to keep on accepting supply from the all the solar panel installations - there seems to be no end to the installations, but already in some areas, the grid can't take any extra and 2030 seems to be the predicted date that it will be "full". Again, I can't get my head around that.
A term bandied about is "salderen" - it translates to "netting" but I'm really none the wiser...I think "balancing" might be more descriptive - we would have to use "their" electricity overnight or during the winter months, but it would be "balanced" over the year against what we had supplied - presumably we would come out in front.
It seems that the Dutch market has had little interest in Home Batteries (eg Tesla Power Walls) because of "salderen". ie there was enough money being paid back to the suppliers (those with solar panels). Apparently that is going to change - but I can't glean for better or worse. Janny says it may change her mind on actually buying the panels on our roof.
So, I'm leaning to a house battery, although it may well be that the battery in an electric car has more capacity. (it would need a two-way charging pole).
(reading further - it seems that the "salderen" is being phased out and will end in 2031). I think it would still be financially viable to buy the panels...
It's all very interesting, but my head still hurts :-)
I'm slowly finding out more....
ACM ConsuWijzer is part of the regulator Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).
(Google translate)
Do you generate sustainable energy yourself? For example through solar panels? You use part of this energy yourself. You return the rest to the public grid. Your supplier deducts this from the energy supplied by him. This deduction is called netting. Balancing is therefore the number of kWh you generate minus the kWhs you consume.
The law no longer states how and when your energy supplier must balance. This is often stated in your contract. At first, the law stated that netting must be done annually. That's why it was on our website. We still think it is desirable that your energy supplier balances your annual consumption and on the annual statement .
At the beginning of 2023, the House of Representatives will discuss a proposal to reinstate mandatory annual netting. This proposal comes from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy. When it will take effect is not yet known.
Money Talks: The new power in the North Sea
As a welcome change (relief?) from the American politics podcasts I often turn to the Economist or BBC.
This one from The Economist talks about huge wind farm developments off the coast of Denmark and that led me to look up others - the largest windfarm _ Hornsea 2 and also one off the coast of the Netherlands.
The North Sea seems to be ideal for these projects.
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYWNhc3QuY29tL3RoZWVjb25vbWlzdG1vbmV5dGFsa3M/episode/NjNjMDQ4MzFlZDI2YWIwMDExYzg4MzE3?ep=14
On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin, Alice Fulwood and Mike Bird ask whether the North Sea can turn green. The Economist’s Matthieu Favas says wind farms in the North Sea could power Europe’s 200m homes. Jesper Frost Rasmussen, mayor of Esbjerg, explains how the offshore wind industry has changed life in the Danish port town. Ulrik Stridbæk of Orsted, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, says that some sites are already generating the same amount of power as a large nuclear power station. Plus, we speak to Thomas Dalsgaard about why his firm, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, wants to build a physical island 100 kilometres off the coast of Denmark.
https://orsted.com/en/media/newsroom/news/2022/08/20220831559011#:~:text=%C3%98rsted%20is%20proud%20to%20announce,clean%20and%20secure%20renewable%20energy.
Facts about Hornsea 2 Offshore Wind Farm (top left marker, above)
- 165 wind turbines delivering 1.3 GW of renewable electricity
- The wind farm spans an area of 462 km2 – equal to more than 64,000 football fields
- Each wind turbine blade is 81m long and the blade tip reaches more than 200m above sea level
- One revolution of the wind turbine blades can power an average UK home for 24 hours
- 390km of subsea export cables take the power generated from Hornsea 2 to the shore at Horseshoe Point in Lincolnshire
Our first (Orsted) offshore wind farm in the Netherlands
Borssele 1&2 is our first offshore wind farm in the Netherlands. With a capacity of 752 MW of green energy, this wind farm can keep one million Dutch households running.
The construction of Borssele 1&2 took place in 2020. It supplied the first electricity to the Dutch electricity grid in April of that year. The wind farm was officially opened in September 2021.
Borssele 1&2 is located in the North Sea, 23 kilometers off the Zeeland coast of Westkapelle. It is maintained from our maintenance location in Vlissingen.
Ben in Hawaii
He also went snorkeling from a boat - with whales in sight!. He said that they could hear them under the water.
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