The total for the green stack is 167.2 kWh/d and the total for the red stack is 125.3 kWh/d. The red stack is slightly low compared to the energy usage given in McKay but will be used for the consistency of this analysis.Offshore Wind
The leader in the green stack is offshore wind energy. This value is considerably higher than would actually be available due to the fact the calculation was done using the entire coastline of The Netherlands up to 10 km out. The Netherlands is a major shipping hub and the installation of the offshore wind turbines along the entire coastline would not be possible. The realistic length of shoreline and energy available is calculated below. The wind speed map of The Netherlands is shown and will be used as a reference in reasoning about placement of turbines.
www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/09/urban-windmills.html
Inspection of the map shows the middle section of the coastline has adequate wind speeds and does not have large ports or inlets from the sea. It will be assumed that it would be geographical feasible to place wind turbines along half of the coastline.
Geographically feasible wind power = (104 kWh/d)*(0.5) = 52 kWh/d
The power delivered is (16,500,000)*(52 kWh/d)/(24 hrs/d) = 35.75 GW
Using the 3 MW wind turbines like McKay references, the total number of turbines is calculated as:
(35.75 GW)/(3 MW/turbine)= 11,900 turbines
To erect this many turbines would be an extreme challenge especially as 50 specialized jack up barges would have to be purchased to complete the task in a 10 year period. Each barge has a cost of around 100 million dollars each. Now economic feasibility must be considered. The rough cost of each turbine erected is 3 billion dollars. This would bring the total cost of the project to 41 billion dollars.
The offshore wind power in The Netherlands has increased 1.4 GW in the last 10 years. Even if the rate of the increase doubles over the next ten years, the increase will be 2.8 GW which is well short of the desired 36 GW.
Realistic wind power = current capacity plus increase = 3.8 GW + 2.8 GW = 6.6GW
Realistic wind power per person per day = (6.6GW)*(24 hours)/16500000 = 9.6 kWh/person per day
Wave and Tide
The realistic estimate for wave and tide power will be assessed in the same way. The maximum value was calculated considering 100% of the coastline could be used. As discussed before, this would not work well for The Netherlands as they serve as a major shipping hub.
Realistic wave power = (5.1 kWh/person per day)*(0.5) = 2.55kWh/person per day
Realistic tide power = (12 kWh/d)*(0.5) = 6 kWh/person per day
Biomass
A realistic estimate for the power that could be produced from biomass will be calculated using the estimate in the original green stack analysis. A value of 60% of the total land area was used for the maximum value estimate. This number would be quite high as parts of the land would not be easy to cultivate. The remaining land could not be completely used as 27% of the total area of The Netherlands is used for crop production. A better estimate for the land that could be devoted to biomass production is :
100 - 40 (cities) - 27 (crop) - 20 (not feasible) = 13% of the total area
The maximum value is calculated to be 11.9 kWh/d
The realistic estimate is:
(11.9 kWh/d)*(13/60) = 2.56 kWh/d
Wind and Solar
The estimates for potential wind and solar power were given originally as a realistic numbers and are:
Wind: 22.4 kWh/d
Solar: 11.7 kWh/d
The completed realistic Green stack is compared to the Red Stack below:
The new total for the Green stack is 55 kWh/d. The difference between the stacks is then 70 kWh/d that will need to be supplemented with other sources such as nuclear and fossil fuels. The current energy profile of the country could also be decreased and would lower the red stack resulting in a lower need for additional energy sources.
Land use information obtained from: (1)