Judith Stegeman
The Afsluitdijk is the porch to my hometown. It is so familiar to me that for me it is one of the characteristics of the Netherlands and of being home. In order to travel by car from Delft or other places to my hometown Leeuwarden most of the times we have to travel via the Afsluitdijk. Whenever I see the Afsluitdijk I know home isn’t that far away. My father even had to travel this route from Leeuwarden to Den Helder every working day via the 32 km of the Afsluitdijk.
But the Afsluitdijk is not only familiar to me. Holland is known worldwide for its innovative creation of cultural landscape and its dealing with water. The Afsluitdijk is part of this tradition. The Afsluitdijk, designed by Lely and built in 1932, combines both a water embankment and a road connecting the provinces of Noord-Holland and Friesland.
Nowadays this worldwide known infrastructural object will be used for the next technology, that of Blue Energy. But still the Netherlands are lacking behind by becoming energy neutral and dealing with the climate change.
Can blue energy be the future of the Netherlands? Will this be combined with our great water technical innovations? Will we someday be known for our innovative water energy concept? Can the characteristics of the Netherlands be used and emphasized in this way? Will it also be the pride of the people of the Netherlands? Will we be as familiar with blue energy as with the Afsluitdijk itself?
In 2007 and 2008 elections were held by Rijkswaterstaat, the water agency, to develop a vision about the future of the Afsluitdijk[i], as it needs renovation. Because the Afsluitdijk is a well-known characteristic for the Netherlands and its citizens, it is important to give the Afsluitdijk a future role so that the importance of the Afsluitdijk is being kept and maintained.
The Afsluitdijk can play a future key role in making the Netherlands more sustainable as it can be used for blue energy. Blue energy is to obtain energy from the difference in salt density between salt water and fresh water. At this moment is being experimented with this technology in Breezanddijk, situated at the Afsluitdijk[ii]. The Afsluitdijk is the ultimate location to do so as the fresh water from the Ijsselmeer and the salt water from the Waddenzee can be used.
The Netherlands has always been known for the fight with the water. Last years this strategy has been turned into working with the water(ii). The Netherlands are being asked for advice in other countries to help them working out this strategy because of its knowledge. Working with water is what characterises the Netherlands at the moment. Blue energy is also about working with the water as energy is created by using the water for the right purposes. By improving this technology the knowledge of this system will grow and the Netherlands will be asked for advice in this case.
When this technology is applied and implemented in Holland, we will be known worldwide for this system. The citizens will become proud of this. But is important to make the system visible and accessible for them, just like is the case with the Afsluitdijk. When it becomes visible and accessible it becomes more evident.
But implementing this system might take a while. Already in the 1970’s this technology of Blue Energy has been known of, but experimenting with it took some time. Small experiments have been done by Wetsus, European centre for water technology[iii], and Frisia Zout, European salt company[iv], which had positive results. At this moment in the test setup in Breezanddijk the Blue Energy technology is being worked with in real circumstances. Afterwards an increase in scale will be performed by a demonstration installation. This makes the technology more accessible. I am looking forward to that as the experiments with Blue Energy are not visible at the moment. I know something is going to happen but it is not clear to me yet.
As the Netherlands offer the ultimate location for testing and using Blue Energy and combine this technology with the already famous characteristic the Afsluitdijk, we might also become famous for this new technology. By handling the climate change this is a good solution, which makes use of the cultural, created circumstances where the Netherlands is known for already. By making this technology visible and accessible for both citizens and tourists people will become familiar with it. Blue Energy will at least be the future of the Afsluitdijk itself.
[i] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afsluitdijk
[ii] http://www.deafsluitdijk.nl/projecten/blue-energy/
[iii] https://www.wetsus.nl/home/what-is-wetsus
[iv] http://www.esco-salt.com/frisiazout.html?&L=4