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How the Netherlands built a thriving circular economy
Good morning!
Some good news to get things started:
India aims to have 50,000 electric buses on its streets by 2027, and the US has agreed to provide funding, Bloomberg reported.
Germany’s coal-based power output was down 47% in the third quarter versus a year before, per government stats.
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The Netherlands is pulling even further ahead of its peers in the shift to a recycling-driven circular economy, new data shows.
According to the European Commission’s statistics office, 27.5% of the material resources used in the country come from recycled waste.
For context, Belgium is a distant second, with a “circularity rate” of 22.2%, while the EU average is 11.5% – a mere 0.8 percentage point increase from 2010.
“We are a frontrunner, but we have a very long way to go still, and we’re fully aware of that,” Martijn Tak, a policy advisor in the Dutch ministry of infrastructure and water management, tells The Progress Playbook.
The country aims to halve the use of primary abiotic raw materials by 2030 and run the economy entirely on recycled materials by 2050. Amsterdam, a pioneer of the “doughnut economics” concept, is behind much of the progress.
- Read the full story here.
A 30-month study in South Africa’s Western Cape province has found that smart water heater management systems can play a major role in reducing energy use, smoothing power demand throughout the day, and facilitating the broader shift towards renewable energy.
Under the project, 500 electric water heaters in Cape Town and the Hessequa Local Municipality were equipped with devices developed by energy technology company Plentify.
The devices, called HotBots, use artificial intelligence to automatically turn water heaters on and off at the most optimal times, with the aim of shifting electricity use away from morning and evening peaks, capitalising on periods of strong solar output, and reducing overall power demand.
The study compared 19 months of baseline measurements against nearly 12 months worth of data following the installation of the HotBots.
It found that:
The devices reduced each water heater’s electricity use during peak periods by up to 80%, without affecting the supply of hot water to the participating households.
They improved each water heater’s overall energy efficiency by up to 24% by switching them off when they did not need to be consuming electricity.
By coordinating the devices in such a way that each geyser drew power at a slightly different time, maximum demand at any point in time across the entire fleet of water heaters was slashed by up to 60%.
- Read the full story here.
* This article was updated after the country extended its 100% renewables streak by another month.
Renewables alone have powered the Uruguayan economy for five straight months.
Between 1 July and 30 November 2023, the South American nation generated all of its electricity from renewable sources — with wind the single-biggest contributor, according to data collated by Ember.
Uruguay hit the same milestone in 2022 during the spring months. But it had to turn back to fossil fuels — in the form of imported oil — over the summer period when a historic drought curbed hydro output. The polluting fuel accounted for roughly 10% of the power mix through 2022.
How it got here: Uruguay used to rely almost entirely on hydro- and oil & gas-based power.
But as the economy grew and electricity demand threatened to overtake supply from the early 2010s, it needed to add additional generating capacity, and fast. New hydro wasn’t an option as it had already made the most of that resource.
To chart the way forward, the president appointed Ramón Méndez Galain, a particle physicist from the private sector, as the country’s director of energy.
Méndez Galain set about turning Uruguay into a renewables-powered and more energy independent nation.
- Read the full story here.
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