Let's all share our power
by Erik de Ruijter
The war in the Middle East (Iran) for the second time (remember the war in Ukraine) is leading to large increases in the prices of oil, gas and electricity. How do we become independent from these geopolitics? To this end, Energiek Alphen aan den Rijn is working with extra energy to build energy communities.
Our communities start with the ‘users’ of homes and buildings, i.e. residents, organisations and businesses in a village or neighbourhood. Their collective energy needs determine how much power is needed. That power is generated with solar panels on houses, flats, commercial buildings, offices of social organisations and at sports clubs, for example.
In the energy community, users share that generated power with each other. This is only possible if the power is used immediately when it is generated. The higher this so-called simultaneity is, the more you can share.
Simultaneity can go up if you install a battery together and store power. Or if you make wind energy together with a small windmill or buy sustainable wind power together.
In an energy community, users match their consumption to the power that is available. It helps that participants have different, individual consumption profiles. Households can generate a lot of power with solar panels during the day, but use little energy during the day. That power can then be used by a business or office. Another example of matching consumption to the power available is doing the laundry or charging your electric car when the sun is shining brightly.
My call is: let's all share our power! It's reliable, sustainable and with a stable price, which usually makes energy bills lower than without energy sharing. Since this year, it has been legally possible for individuals and companies to share energy through an energy community.
As you may know, we are already busy building the local energy community in Benthuizen. But we also want to set up energy communities in the other village centres and neighbourhoods. Ultimately, we will then have the Energiek Alphen aan den Rijn energy community for the whole municipality!
Therefore a call to everyone in Alphen aan den Rijn: help become energy independent. The first step you can take to do this is to share your energy data with Energiek Alphen. You can do this with Noorderlicht Energie's concurrency dashboard. We explain how this works on our website. Important for you to know, is that your privacy is guaranteed!
Go to our website and join. Choose right away the energy community that belongs to you (Benthuizen, Hazerswoude-Rijndijk/Koudekerk and Groenendijk, Alphen Samen) and sign up immediately as a member of Energiek Alphen. Participation is free! Will you join? What's stopping you? Nothing anyway!
Erik de Ruijter was one of the three founders in 2013 and has been chairman of Energiek Alphen aan den Rijn since 2024.
Would you like to respond? Please email Erik.de.Ruijter@energiekalphen.nl
