In the past ten years I regularly drove on motorways that were being expanded. In road construction they managed to find space that was previously unused. It provides capacity by changing from a two-lane road to a three-lane road. The problem of traffic jams does not seem to be solved. I had already experienced that in my student days. It did not matter much how many planks were added: plates remained on the dining tables.
For quite some time now, I have been hearing from members and visitors to our activities that it is bizarre that the government cannot plan ten years ahead for electricity networks and other ways of transmitting energy. Then you suddenly get grid congestion.
I think it is public knowledge that many windmills are being built in the North Sea and that solar parks or solar panels are appearing en masse in the country. You are overwhelmed with plans. What is really happening then? That turns out to be more than I expected.
I see presentations of experiments with hydrogen, where for example the pilot in Lochem a testing ground for new measuring instruments. Innovations to charge three times as many electric cars with the same infrastructure. Since this year, nuclear power plants are being seriously considered and a visit from the NEN committee for DC has made me understand that a lot is already happening in the field of direct current.
That is also so logical. Technicians are working on very concrete projects and so a lot is happening. The individual stories (that someone cannot be connected) and the various media (that scream bloody murder) give you the idea of an abyss that we are driving towards. We are going from a two-lane road to a three-lane road, but it is never enough. How should we look at reality?
As far as I'm concerned, it's mainly by having technical experts listen to each other. For that, FHI is organizing a meeting on June 8 meeting at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
This column previously appeared in E-Totaal.
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