Dutch growers are facing changes in the field of energy. AgroEnergy decided to use this subject as the theme of the symposium, which was held yesterday in the Fabrique in Utrecht. Growers came from all over the country to listen to speakers talk about a variety of subjects regarding this theme.
Gerrit Hiemstra, weatherman and director/owner of Weather Impact BV, went up first. We will all be confronted - even more than now - with climate change. This has of course consequences for the greenhouse horticulture, for which he sees both danger and opportunities.
Jan de Decker, CEO at Next Kraftwerke Belgium & The Netherlands, spoke about digitization, decentralization, and flexibilization in the energy market. In the coming decades we must convert our electricity system to a 100% CO2 neutral system. Digitization, decentralization, and flexibilization in demand and supply no doubt will be crucial to keep this right on track. The greenhouse horticulture sector already takes the lead here, but is not making use of all the possibilities.
Jillis Raadschelders, Business Director Decentralised Energy Transition described the impact of the energy transmission on the value chain. In every value chain there is storage somewhere? What are the options for energy storage? And is storing energy a good idea anyways?
Thomas Rau gave the audience a view of his vision. "We have to be aware of our temporal presence on earth, but our decisions do have lasting consequences. He called on his audience to organize the economy like a library, for and by everyone, and for which we all take responsibilities.
Joris Bontje, partner & CTO of OneUp, spoke about the opportunities of block chain for the energy sector. There was a lot of talk about upcoming technologies such as block chain. What could this technology mean for the energy sector? Joris used existing use cases to show the possibilities.
"Flexible crop management and big data could provide energy savings" is the maxim of Simon van Mourik, assistant professor at Wageningen University.
Technology and information supply are essential to the modern greenhouse. How can we use this optimally for a cheap and sustainable energy supply? University Wageningen is staring a new research project in which decision supporting algorithms are being developed. The algorithms make use of several data streams and crop flexibility.
After the informative part of this day, it was time for entertainment, provided by illusionist Jan Reinder. He showed how you can use the energy within you to achieve more. What seems an impossible task, suddenly becomes real.