Feature: Dutch island paddles its own canoe by way of sustainability

When he branded Goeree-Overflakkee, a 261 square km Dutch island enclosed by the North Sea, as "Western Europe's most sustainable island," Lennard Seriese meant a more serious pursuit than merely a marketing gimmick.

"Our ambition is to be completely energy neutral by 2020. It means that all the energy we use for houses, companies, tourists as well for heating, electricity and transport will be locally produced in a sustainable way," said the 29-year-old consultant working for the municipality of Goeree-Overflakkee.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

The island proudly announced that it is producing one third of the sustainable energy in South Holland, one of the 13 provinces in the Netherlands. Together with The Hague, Europe's biggest port Rotterdam is also in this province and 30 minutes by car from the island.

On the list of the island's sustainability highlights are 33 windmills producing energy for 30,000 households, and a solar park providing enough energy to power 225 homes. The solar park is said to be the largest of its kind in South Holland. Its 2,900 panels spread out on a surface of 1.3 acres, satisfying the energy needs of nearby recreation parks, the rest delivered to the grid.

"The South Holland province wants to have panels on the roof, not on the ground. On our island, we do not have enough roofs, but we have land that is not very useful anymore, because salinization has made it harder to use for the agricultural sector," explained Seriese.

Another iconic project is a tidal power plant to be built along the 6,500-meter-long Brouwersdam to connect the island with Schouwen Duiveland (an island to its south). The plant will exploit the difference between low tide and high tide to produce energy for 20,000 to 50,000 households.

The provinces of South Holland and Zeeland, Rijkswaterstaat (the country's water board), the municipalities of the two islands are committed to the building of the plant. "The result will be a new icon for Dutch Delta technology with a regional, national and international impact. The first phase has ended," Seriese told Xinhua.

Other initiatives on the agenda include free charging points for electronic cars and a hydrogen station to be put into use this year, also a first in the Netherlands. Hydrogen buses will drive between the island and Rotterdam. A fishery innovation lab has been launched to test new fishing techniques to mitigate negative impacts on the environment.

LOCAL ENGAGEMENT

For the municipality, the island's efforts at sustainability are remarkable thanks to the full engagement of its inhabitants. The ambition is shared among 485,000 inhabitants or around 20,000 households on this quiet island, according to the municipality's alderman Arend-Jan van der Vlugt.

"Together with everyone on the island we work hard on it: sustainable energy, sustainable food supply, sustainable tourism - we are frontrunner on sustainability innovations," he told a group of press invited to visit the island.

The solar park, for example, is one of the projects invested by a local cooperation of residents and companies. Members of this cooperation, namely "Deltawind," have contributed approximately 5 million euros (5.43 million U.S. dollars) to invest in sustainable projects.

The funding went to several wind projects, environmental education, solar energy and energy saving. The cooperation is now discussing plans of more solar parks "10 to 40 times bigger" in the coming years, said Anne Verheij, chairwoman of Deltawind.

Another local initiative "Energieke Regio," launched in close cooperation with the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, the Rabobank, the municipality and many others, aims to encourage small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to reduce their expenses by making significant energy-efficiency improvements to their building, and supports them in this process.

More than three-quarters of the businesses contacted in the first region signed up to join the initiative, and within a short space of time more than 2 million euros was invested in highly successful energy-efficiency measures, according to the municipality of Goeree-Overflakkee.

"Sustainable energy is not something that government can do on its own account. You have to interact with your companies and your inhabitants," said Seriese. "The municipality can request inhabitants not to make their house temperature more than 26 degrees, but it is not popular. We have to rely and invite inhabitants to take environmental responsibilities themselves."

Fishermen on the island seem to have adopted the idea. Shipping vessels from the island sell on a yearly basis 12,000 to 13,000 tons of fish, reaching 45 to 46 million euros in turnover.

"We used to fish with chains. Five to six years ago we started to change to electric pulse fishery. With the pulse we only catch big sized fishes and keep the small fish on the bottom," Johan Baaij, a local fisherman told Xinhua.

"Another positive thing is that we have cut 50 percent of our gas oil consumption, so we have also 50 percent less CO2 emission. You can keep the savings in your pocket, while you would need a lot of fish to make that money," he said.

Baaij is the fifth generation of his fishing company. "My son is 12 years old now. I hope he will also go in the fishery. If I take all the fish out, when he is 24 he will have nothing. For us it is important to use good technology, take good fish and make good money," he said. Endit