Noorderzijlvest and Regional Energy Strategy (RES) 

How do we translate the goals of the National Climate Agreement to our region? What do we want? And what can we do? Where is there room for other sources of energy after we have said goodbye to our natural gas? Each region writes this down in a Regional Energy Strategy (RES).

Provisional plans have now been drawn up for both Groningen and Drenthe. All regional authorities and many stakeholders collaborated on the first version of the RES. The Noorderzijlvest Water Authority is participating in the RES region of Groningen and in the RES region of Drenthe.

What does the Regional Energy Strategy say?

In each region, governments and stakeholders are examining where and how sustainable electricity can best be generated on land. For the time being, this involves wind and solar energy. Each region describes its contribution to the most important goal of the Climate Agreement. That goal is to generate 35 terawatt hours (TWh) of large-scale solar and wind energy on land in the Netherlands within ten years. 1 terawatt hour is 1 billion kilowatt hours. Other possible heat sources are also being investigated. After all, we want neighborhoods and buildings to be able to switch from natural gas.

What does this mean for you?

The Regional Energy Strategy (RES) is being developed in collaboration with residents, businesses, and social partners. Municipalities involve you in initiatives. Energy cooperatives play an important role in enabling residents and businesses to benefit from solar and wind energy. The intention is that the financial proceeds from the projects will (in part) benefit participating residents and the surrounding area.

Continued

On July 1, 2021, all RES regions (30 in total) submitted their RES 1.0 to the National RES Program. This included Groningen and Drenthe. Each RES specifies the contribution the region intends to make to the goal of generating 35 TWh of electricity in the Netherlands by 2030 through wind energy and large-scale solar energy. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) is analyzing all RES 1.0 plans as an independent party. The PBL's report is expected to be published at the end of this year. But that's not the end of the story. New insights and technologies continue to emerge. That is why, for the time being, a new RES will be drawn up every two years: a 2.0, a 3.0, and so on. All kinds of parties and residents are involved in this.

Careful process

Plans for solar and wind energy have already been realized in Groningen and Drenthe. Other projects are also planned. Groningen contributes a total of 5.7 terawatt hours (TWh) to the targets of the National Climate Agreement. For Drenthe, this is at least 3.45 terawatt hours (TWh). A large part of this contribution has therefore already been realized or a permit has been granted for it. Municipal councils, provincial councils, and the general boards of the water authorities ultimately decide on the contributions of the regions.

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