Energy Transition Lessons from the Netherlands Natural Gas Transition
The world is going through historic transitions, a global shift of energy, transportation, and consumption that will impact every aspect of our lives, but is that not the norm and could we learn from De Nederlandse aardgastransiti (“the Netherlands natural gas transition“) in the 1960s?
De Nederlandse aardgastransitie
Humanity has not always used petroleum, natural gas, and coal as its dominant energy sources. It transitioned from wood to coal, but that transition took a long time. What can we learn from these historical transitions to effectively deal with the modern energy transition? The author, Sven Ringelberg, natural gas-free project consultant and entrepreneur behind Simpel Subsidie, wrote his book De Nederlandse aardgastransitie: Lessen voor de De Nederlandse aardgastransitie, or Dutch natural gas transition: Lessons for the Dutch natural gas transition, which looks at the shift from coal to gas for space heating in the Netherlands in the 1960s and the lessons that we could take from this transition that took under 10 years. The book is published in Dutch by Eburon.
The Netherlands transition from coal for space heating to natural gas compared to the world transition from fossil fuels for heating, power, transport, and industrial processes might seem like comparing apple and oranges, but the energy transition is happening on multiple fronts at multiple scales. This book is primarily aimed at those thinking about the Netherlands and their current “energietransitie” away from natural gas and towards renewable energy, but all countries are facing their own energy transition and this book offers interesting insights into how on a country level the energy transition can be done. And it comes in a delightful, well-written package.
The current energietransitie in the Netherlands with projects and the creation of gas-free neighbourhoods, increasing insulation, and expanding renewable energy has a parallel with the 1960s energy transition.
Natural Gas and Glittering Nuclear Future
In 1959, the Netherlands discovered a massive gas pocket near Slochteren. The company that discovered it and the Dutch government negotiated, and 10 years later, a country that had normally only heated one room in its homes with coal had converted the majority of its cooking and heating to natural gas, and had introduced more widespread central heating.
This rapid deployment of natural gas is explored in depth in the book, from the negotiations and the reasoning behind it, including one of the main drivers and assumptions of the government at the time. In the 1960s, it was expected that nuclear power would be the future and that if the gas supply was not quickly developed and exploited, it would be hard to recoup the investment, so a plan was created to quickly develop and exploit the natural gas energy source that was expected to last 30 years. Gasunie, a company that was a public-private partnership, encouraged gas use with regressive tariffs. With the tariffs, gas got less expensive the more people used.
Something in the Air
In the 1960s, the marketing for natural gas was about the benefits of using more gas the cosiness and luxury of heat, but in the 1970s, things changed. The Club of Rome publishing the Limits of Growth in 1972 and the oil crisis in 1973 changed the focus from using as much as possible to saving as much as possible.
The book goes into detail about this change of focus and the results, including a focus on more insulation and how gas was promoted.
Advertisements for economical use of natural gas from the 1970s. Source: International Institute of Social History, provided by Sven Ringalberg
The Background
The domestic heating and cooking situation in the 1950s Netherlands was split between multiple types — electric, city gas, coal, and oil. Each had its advantages and disadvantages, but town gas was dominant in cooking and coal was dominant in space heating — but this space heating was limited to the living room due to cost. In the book, Sven discusses how the post-war Netherlands was dealing with the issues of destroyed housing and sub-standard housing and worked to resolve this issue, but rising social standards had created a rising desire for more comfortable central heated homes, and while propaganda for coal talked about the comfortable living room stove, the negatives of coal, oil, town gas, and electric were well known to the users. Natural gas was abundant, cheap, cleaner, and could use the existing town gas network, which created an opportunity for natural gas to become a widespread heat and energy source if properly planned.
Year of Silence
Furthermore, the government benefited from revenue that allowed it to spend on education, infrastructure, and social welfare without tax burden, but after the initial discovery in Slochteren, the discovery was hardly reported on beyond the initial reports of a discovery. Sven Ringelberg discussed the reasons behind the “silence of Slochteren” and how the deal was not nationalization but also not privatization. The details of this arrangement included Shell, Esso, and government entities.
The Transition
The deal between the companies, national government departments, and city municipalities outlined the whole planned transition, from pricing, infrastructure, marketing materials, and the roles of each player in the transition. Sven Ringelberg goes into deep detail about this planning process and each part of the transition, from laying the large backbone of natural gas pipelines to transferring the gas from Slochteren to the municipalities, to the process of switching neighbourhoods to natural gas and retrofitting old town gas stoves.
Design gas transport network in the Netherlands 1963–1975. Source: Gasunie. provided by Sven Ringalberg.
Lessons to Learn from a 20th-Century Transition for the 21st-Century Transition
According to Sven Ringelberg, this quick (10 years) and somewhat painless transition was helped by a number of factors. One key factor was leadership from the central government that shaped the goals and provided the resources from key partners and agencies to promptly design and plan the transition, which is contrasted against what’s happening now in the Netherlands in 2021, in which municipal governments are tasked with this job but where they lack the resources and might only have “one and a half men and a horse’s head” to create pilots. The fragmentation of responsibilities and resources has led to a lack of standardization (which increases costs) and less momentum towards the goal.
Sven Ringelberg discusses how focusing on financial benefits might be the wrong route to people choosing to go gas-free, that putting a price on something does not always lead to buy-in from the public, but focus on the non-financial benefits that people get from a gas-free home is key, such as comfort or reducing your impact on the environment. This aspect will impact many customer-facing transitions, like the move from fossil fuel vehicles to electric vehicles.
Final Word
Sven Ringelberg has managed to turn a subject that could have easily been a dry, dusty, academic read into a very engaging and informative read. The book has diagrams and tables of key statics, but also anecdotes — from Pinkie from coal propaganda to Kees the gas dog. The book provides a rear-view mirror to contemplate what has taken us to here and what might be needed to keep driving towards a better future.
Gas dog Kees from The Utrecht Archives, provided by Sven Ringalberg.
Pinkie the cat in Beatrijs, Catholic weekly for women, 19-07-1958, provided by Sven Ringalberg.
For now only available in Dutch, this is a much-needed addition to energy transition literature that readers from around the world could learn lessons from.
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MINI has partnered with lifestyle brand, Deus Ex Machina, to develop this. It’s called the Skeg, and it’s a high-performance, racing-inspired electric concept car that’s sure to lighten the mood – by shedding fully 15% of its mass in the quest for speed.
One of a pair of exclusive, one-off concepts based on MINI’s John Cooper Works cars. The Deus Ex Machina Skeg celebrates MINI’s storied racing history with what the company calls, “a clean, minimal, and quiet rebellion,” that draws on materials, technologies, and philosophies from the world of surfing.
The electric MINI JCW Skeg is stripped to its essentials, with much of the steel and aluminum bits replaced with lightweight fiberglass to maximize acceleration while driving the minimalist aesthetic home. The end result weighs 15% less than the standard car – but makes the same stout 190 kW (258 hp) as the production car.
Surf’s up
The interior is stripped back to the barest essentials, reflecting BMW’s vision of a surf culture that prioritizes function over form. MINI claims the end result resembles a mobile surf shop, with fiberglass trays for wetsuits, specially shaped bins, neoprene seats, and other touches that “bring the surf culture into the interior.”
For their part, the BMW and MINI styling team seems pretty proud of its minimalistic electric endeavor. “In this extraordinary collaboration … every single detail has been crafted with artisanal precision and expertise,” says Holger Hampf, Head of MINI Design. “This has resulted in unique characters that are clearly perceived as belonging together through their distinctive design language and use of graphics.”
The concept retains the production version’s 54.2 kWh li-ion battery pack, up to 250 of WLTP range with the production aero kit, sprints from 0-100 km (62 mph) in just 5.9 seconds. With 15% less mass, though, that should jump to more than 255 miles, with 0-60 times dropping below 5.5 seconds.
I dig it – but I’d skip the surf bits and just appreciate the raw composite, minimalist interior look for what it is. Take a look at the image gallery, below, then let us know what you think of MINI’s Skeg concept in the comments.
MINI Skeg concept | gallery
SOURCE | IMAGES: BMW MINI.
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Environment
Volvo Penta teams up with e-power to equip Boels with next-gen Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)
Veteran marine and industrial power solutions company Volvo Penta has joined forces with energy solutions provider e-power to build battery energy storage systems (BESS). Volvo Penta’s battery systems for energy storage will power BESS units built by e-power that can be catered to a range of applications, most notably construction rental clients like Boels Rentals in Europe.
Volvo Penta is a provider of sustainable power solutions that currently serves land and sea applications under the Volvo Group umbrella. As more and more of the world goes all-electric, the global manufacturer has also adapted, sharing cultural values with Volvo Group to engineer new and innovative sustainable power solutions.
Nearly 100 years later, Volvo Penta remains an industry leader in marine propulsion systems and industrial engines. As more and more of the world goes all-electric, the Swedish manufacturer has also adapted, sharing cultural values with Volvo Group to engineer new and innovative sustainable power solutions.
For example, all Volvo Penta diesel engines now run on hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO), reducing well-to-wheel emissions by up to 90% across the marine and industrial power industries. On the zero-emissions side, Volvo Penta has expressed its dedication to fossil-free power solutions, including battery electric components to serve heavy-duty applications such as terminal tractors, forklifts, drill rigs, and feed mixers, to name a few.
To leverage its battery electric value chain, Volvo Penta has also ventured into battery systems for energy storage (or BESS subsystems). These energy-dense, purpose-built BESS subsystems can provide portable, sustainable energy for all-electric charging and reduce grid dependency.
Volvo Penta to deploy battery systems for energy storage
Volvo Penta recently announced a strategic partnership with e-power, a Belgian power solutions provider. Together, Volvo Penta and e-power will develop a scalable Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) for Boels Rental.
The collaboration continues a long-standing partnership between all three companies. Boels – one of the largest construction rental companies is a long-time customer of e-power generators that utilize Volvo Penta engines. As the company shifts toward electrification and sustainability, it will again turn to those companies to deliver reliable performance.
Volvo Penta’s BESS subsystem comprises battery packs, a Battery Management System (BMS), DC/DC converters, and thermal management, combining to offer a compact, high-density, and transport-friendly solution optimized for rental operations. The company shared that this BESS design is integration-ready, enabling other OEMs like e-power to adapt and scale systems to customer-specific needs. Per e-power business support director, Jens Fets:
We’ve built our reputation on reliability and efficient power systems. Working again with Volvo Penta, this time on battery energy storage, allows us to meet the growing demand for energy in a silent, low-emissions, compact and mobile design—especially in rental applications.
The deployment of these new battery energy storage systems will help Boels cater to its customers’ growing demand for clean, silent, and mobile energy solutions in construction and other industrial applications.
Aside from being more quickly adaptable to customer needs, Volvo Penta says its BESS architecture marks an overall shift in rental power systems. This is welcome news for all who support a cleaner, more sustainable future across all industries.
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That didn’t take long! Just a few hours after Mercedes revealed the screen-heavy interior of its upcoming 2026 GLC EV, photos of the new crossover’s exterior – and that controversial grille! – leaked on Instagram and Reddit. We’ve got them here.
Two days ahead of the GLC EV’s officially schedule global debut, images that reportedly show the new 2026 Mercedes undisguised have leaked on Instagram and Reddit. They show the blocky new light-up grille on the nose of a very smooth, jellybean-like crossover shape that, despite Mercedes’ insistence that it’s moving away from the EQ series’ design language, looks an awful lot like an EQ Mercedes.
Check out the leaked images from kindleauto’s Instagram account, below, and see if you agree with that assessment.
If you need to see more before you feel comfortable commenting on the new SUV’s looks, there’s a few more angles over on the r/mercedes_benz subreddit.
Leaked exterior pictures of the upcoming GLC EV
byu/Quick_Coyote_7649 inmercedes_benz
As with everything else on the internet, take those unofficial images with a grain of salt and maybe wait until the GLC EV’s official reveal in a few days’ time before casting your final vote on the new look – but there’s very little reason to believe the new Mercedes will look terribly different from what you see here.
Will the new grille and tech-forward interior with its massive, 39″ screen and MB.OS software be enough to turn the tide for Mercedes-Benz, enabling it to finally gain some traction in the electric crossover market? That remains to be seen, but the recently updated Tesla Model Y and crisply-styled new BMW iX3 with its 500 miles of range will make it an uphill battle, for sure.
We got a sneak peek at the new GLC back in July, when Mercedes-Benz Group CEO, Ola Källenius said that, “We’re not just introducing a new model – we’re electrifying our top seller.” Back then, we learned that the new GLC EV would have a wheelbase 3.1″ longer than the current ICE-powered model, as well as more head- and leg-room for its occupants and an extra 4.5 cubic feet (for 61.4 total) of cargo space.
Källenius also promised an innovative new 800V electric architecture and the latest battery tech, which will enable the electric GLC to add around 260 km (~160 miles) of WLTP range in just ten minutes thanks to more than 300 kW of charging capability.
SOURCES | IMAGES: kindleauto; Quick_Coyote_7649.
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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
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