First 'Roof-rent' Solar Panels at Frisian Dairy Farm
NETHERLANDS - The first roof with solar panels was delivered in the framework of the Solar programme of FrieslandCampina at the Elshof dairy farm in Oldetrijne (Friesland, the Netherlands) on Friday 29 September 2017.
4 October 2017
2 minute read
This took place in the presence of Roelof Joosten, CEO of Royal FrieslandCampina N.V., Sytse Bouwer of GroenLeven and dozens of guests.
Roelof Joosten said that he was very happy with the subsidy, which will be used to install a total of 416,000 solar panels at 310 dairy farms, where these will annually generate 115 GWh green electricity. This is equal to green electricity for 33,000 households or 20 per cent of the total use of electricity of FrieslandCampina in the Netherlands.
Mr Joosten said: "The ambition of FrieslandCampina is to generate sufficient green electricity at the farm yards of our member farmers to fully cover the use of electricity. With this we will contribute to the reduction objective for the year 2020 as agreed within the dairy sector.
"The agricultural sector already represents half of the national green energy production. Large-scale installation of solar panels thanks to the 'roof-rent solution' can help us reach this objective. With this the agricultural sector can play an even more important role in the energy transition."
Henk Kamp, Minister of Economic Affairs, recently granted a subsidy of €200 million for solar panels on the roofs of FrieslandCampina dairy farms. All this based on the 'roof-rent solution' developed by GroenLeven, in which the dairy farmer receives a payment per panel.
Climate-neutral growth
FrieslandCampina is working on several initiatives for an efficient and sustainable dairy chain in order to achieve climate-neutral growth. By purchasing green certificates, FrieslandCampina stimulates its member dairy farmers to generate sustainable energy, for example by means of windmills, manure fermentation or solar panels. On top of this, FrieslandCampina will pay these members a bonus of €10 per ton reduction of the CO2 emission.
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