2010
2010
It’s the last day of 2010, time to look back, like I do every year.
On April 14th, 2010, the Iceland vulcano Eyjafjallajökull (
) erupted, severely disrupting air travel over the northern part of Europe for a week or two. This was inconventient enough for the stranded air travellers, but the contrail-less sky contributed to record yields () of solar power.
On April 20th, the oil exploration platform Deepwater Horizon exploded () while drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, after which unbelievable amounts of crude oil flowed into the sea for three months. Although the disaster received much media attention the mainstream media didn’t ask the question that needed to be asked: why are we drilling for oil in ever more inhospitable places? Unfortunately, it appears that nothing was learned from this disaster because in the Gulf of Mexico things have returned to ‘business as usual‘ (
).
If two disasters weren’t enough for one year, on October 14th, 2010 our new cabinet was sworn in (). Both CDA and VVD don’t have a very good reputation when it comes to sustainability, but to make matters worse the PVV supports this minority cabinet. The PVV (much more in the foreground than you’d think) came up with unsustainable propositions as the raising of the maximum speed on motorways to 130km/u (), the tearing down () of wind turbines, building more nuclear power plants () and constructing more roads (). Both VVD and CDA made a big dent (in a negative way) in Dutch progress in sustainability by cancelling the SDE-subsidy plan for small scale decentral solar power systems. It’s clear that mr. Rutte’s team is not very interested in sustainability. “Our new prime minister is illiterate in the area of sustainability”, says () (blz. 10/11) Jeroen van den Bergh of the VU university. The coalition agreement () clearly shows that, unfortunately. We are making great great strides – backwards.
In 2010 the so-called ‘smart meter’ () was back in the news again I’m sure we’re going to here more about that in 2011.
2010 also was the year in which the Dutch Consumers’ Association (DA) discovered solar power, but unfortunately they didn’t do their research. Both in the articles of May () and December () 2010 the DA published articles with several incorrect facts about solar power. The tone of both articles is very negative and basically implore the reader to not install solar panels. Based on a few untruths several very negative assumptions are done. I can’t understand why articles of this low quality are published by an organisation which boasts about its neutrality.
So there was lots of doom and gloom and the world stage. Fortunately, on a smaller scale, 2010 was an excellent year. First and foremost I got married () on June 25th, 2010. It was a fantastic day in every way, which got even better because our wedding car was a Tesla Roadster ().
In 2010 we installed an extension of 660Wp () of our solar panels. I expect our installation to be really finished now – but you never know, it always keeps itching. 
For me, 2010 also was the year of Plugwise (). I’ve been monitoring the electricity production of our solar panels with Plugwise since the beginning of 2010, and I like it a lot as the system allows me to monitor all five sub-installations from my computer, without having to walk to the attic to read the meter there.
On May 15th, 2010 we had an open door day () under the umbrella of the Solar Days (), and with ten visitors nicely spread throughout the day it was quite succesful.
In 2010 I made three long test drives in the Tazzari Zero (one (), two (), three ()), and a short test drive in a Nissan Leaf (). In September I visited the Ecomobiel () fair about, or so they claimed, sustainable mobility. It was mainly a car fair, but despite that I managed to see some interesting things.
2011
2011
What can we expect in 2011?
One of the things I really want to do in 2011 is to improve the insulation of our house. We’ve had two severe winters in a row now and it’s starting to get expensive. Of course I also find it hard to swallow that we’re using a non-renewable energy source (natural gas in this case) in a very inefficient way. When this is done I will of course write an extensive article with photos and everything.
I hope I can make a longer test drive in a Nissan Leaf in 2011, which should allow me to write a ‘full-size’ article about this car. I also plan to test drive some electric bicycles and electric scooters, which are of course much more sustainable than electric cars. They’re also much cheaper than electric cars and affordable for a much larger group of people.
In June 2011 I celebrate the fifth anniversary of this website. I stil l haven’t decided what I’ll do, exactly, but I’m sure it’ll be a party of sorts.
I expect the Solar Days to be organised in 2011 as well, with its associated open door days. I plan to participate again.
From October 16th to 23rd, 2011 the biannual World Solar Challenge () will be held. I hope to be able to extensively report about the event, like I did on previous occasions. In 2009, the two participating Dutch teams didn’t succeed in finishing in first place, I hope one of them succeeds in doing this in 2011. There were some severe accidents in the 2009 event, might the rules () have been changed for the 2011 event? I’ll create a list of participating teams soon, like I did () for the 2009 event.
The oil price crept upwards in the last quarter of 2010 until it passed the $90 mark. $100 is viewed by many a psychological threshold beyond which oil is ‘too expensive’ and renewable alternatives like sun and wind become more attractive. The predictions about what the oil prices will do in 2011 vary wildly – as they always do. I’m not going to venture a guess. I only hope, as always, that the oil price will maintain it’s steady trajectory upwards, that gives the alternatives the best chance. If the price fluctuates wildly the economy is damaged and nothing will happen because of great uncertainty.
The end of a year is a good time to consider how the website is actually doing, and how it should continue in the coming year. Except for the fact that I should write more I think it’s going fine. The number of visitors is reasonably stable, there is some variation throughout the months but that is to be expected. I expect more visitors in 2011 because of the World Solar Challenge, as that also happened in 2009 and 2007. The nature of the articles I write apparently still appeals to the visitors, so don’t expect any major changes in 2011. “If it works, don’t fix it.”
Beyond the foreseeable stuff I’m sure 2011 will have its share of unexpected events, both positive and negative. I’ll do my best to report on the most interesting stuff in positive and balanced way. No matter what happens, I wish everyone the best. I hope for a lot of sunshine and wind so that we can generate a lot of renewable and sustainable energy
