Category Archives: Politiek
Subsidies on (renewable) energy
Subsidies on fossil energy...
There’s been a lot of complaints lately, especially from within liberal circles, about subsidies on renewable energy. The term ‘leftist hobbies’ was coined in the Netherlands, and it seems to have fallen into popular use. That’s unfortunate because not everything can be expressed in money. How much is a clean environment worth? Or a low CO2-level in the atmosphere? Or an icecap? What’s independence from unreliable or even unfriendly countries worth?
It’s doubly unfortunate that, in fact, the worldwide subsidies for the renewable sector are dwarfed (
) by the subsidies for the fossil sector. Research reveals that the fossil sector gets about twelve times as much money as the renewable sector.
What to do? Increase the subsidies on renewable energy by twelve times? Better not. I am liberal enough to see the many disadvantages of keeping an army of civil servants unnecessarily at work. I hope we’re sensible enough to (quickly) reduce the fossil subsidies to zero to that both energy sources can compete on even terms. Unfortunately the fossil sector has many old vested interests who will not let go of these sources of funding easily.
Only time will tell if we’re able to make sensible decisions about this. Unfortunately the (probable) coming Dutch right-wing cabinet doesn’t give much hope in this area…
June 9th, 2010: General election in the Netherlands
As this article specifically regards the Dutch general elections, and I do not have much time, I have chosen not to translate it into English. If a large supply of time suddenly drops out of the sky I might do this at a later date 
(but do not count on it)
Façade-mounted solar panels need a permit
Op de gevel gemonteerd
Mounting solar panels on a house in the Netherlands has never required a permit, except when you live in a monument or otherwise protected environment. Both roof-mounted and façade-mounted panels required nor permit.
This last case has become an exception: if you want to mount solar panels on the façade of your house, like our solar awning on the picture on the right, this will require a permit. This was announced last week in a letter (
) by VROM (the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment) which answers a number of questions about this subject.
I can partly understand this, it’s possible to build very ugly contraptions with façade-mounted solar panels, but on the other hand I’m afraid this will make installation of solar panels impossible in some situations, for instance when some one doesn’t have suitable roof space available. I don’t expect it to be very big problem, as the majority of solar panels by far are installed on roofs. And of course, the requirement for a permit doesn’t automatically mean the panels can’t be installed, but there’s always the chance that a permit is refused.
So keep this in mind when you’re planning to install solar panels on the façade of your house!
Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment
Local elections 2010 Hilversum
Exactly one month from now local elections will be held in the Netherlands. Although many aspects of sustainability can only be legislated at a national (or rather, global) level, many things can be done at a local level. I was very curious what all the parties in my home city had to say about things like sustainability and Peak Oil, so that’s why I created the overview below.
Before we start, I would like to make one thing absolutely clear: this is in no way a voting advice. Firstly: I wouldn’t dare tell anyone what to vote, everyone should make that choice for him- or herself. Secondly, I think the choice for which party to vote should be based on much more than just a single topic. The only thing I strongly recommend is to go and vote on March, 3rd. Read all the party programs below (each party in the list below has a link to the election program and its website) and if something is not clear, just ask at the party in question.
———-
Listed below are all local political parties that will participate in the local elections in March 2010, in random order. I copy/pasted all text that had to do with sustainability and traffic. I did my best but do not guarantee correctness and/or completeness.
Local elections 2010
Stemmen
The 2010 local elections will be held on March 3rd, that’s just over a month away. How local politics deal with things like the environment, sustainability and energy is just as important as the nationwide and European politics (). Local politics have much influence ons issues like traffic but also rules for energy-efficiency of renovated and newly built buildings
I live in Hilversum (), here are some issues that come to mind:
- Traffic. Hilversum is known, nationwide, as the city you don’t want to go to by car ‘because it’s a continuous traffic jam’. And yes, it’s true that especially during rush hour it can be very congested on Hilversum’s road-system. The local newspaper spend a considerable amount of page space on these traffix issues. A common opinion is that the traffic problems can be solved by technical means like more and wider roads, one-way traffic on some roads, ramp metering, etc. It’s clear to me that these can be temporary stopgaps at best, the basic problem is simply that too many cars are trying to squirm themselves over a road-system that was never designed to handle that much traffic. For a (very) long time there have been plans for a high-quality public transit connection to neighbouring Huizen, but that just can’t seem to get off the ground.
- Energy. Hilversum doesn’t have much ‘dirty’ industry with smoking smokestacks, but it’s economy depends nearly completely on the national broadcasting stations and many media companies. Those called be called clean with some justice, but they are extremely dependent on reliable and cheap energy. I wonder how this sector will cope with rapidly rising energy prices. This sector is also directly tied to the traffic problems as many employees live outside Hilversum and so have to commute every day, often by car.
- Residential energy consumption. Hilversum has a lot of houses from the ’30 (the city’s first growth period when a railway arrived) and the 50′s (fast growth after the Second World War)). Many of these houses have pretty bad insulation, leading to an unnecessarily high energy consumption. New houses are being built here and there which are much better insulated, but I wonder if it isn’t possible to look ahead to the future. A energy-zero house isn’t that difficult to build, and even energy-plus houses are possible if the local regulations would enforce it.
- Incentives. Hilversum has, at this time, several financial incentives for things like insulation, solar panels, solar hot water systems, energy saving glass, etc. That’s all very well but wonder what all the different parties are planning to do in this respect in the coming period 2010-2014.
- Landscape/growth. Hilversum would like to grow, and many people and companies are hungrily eying the surrounding green landscape. This has been an issue of much debate for many years.
I am very curious how the different local parties think about these subjects. I will carefully read the party programs of all the participating local parties and publish an overview on this website. If the programs are not specific enough I may very well write to all those parties and ask them specific questions. I wonder, for instance, if they know about Peak Oil and how they are incorporating it in their policy.
(Nederlands) De zonnestroompanelen staan!
Sorry, this entry is only available in Nederlands.