Slow but steady progress for the natural gas vehicle (NGV) industry in the Netherlands, is set to increase in pace in coming months and years, with evidence of more investment and commercial activity across this small country with large natural gas holdings.
dutCH4, a consulting and contracting company in the Netherlands is devoted to the long term development of a CNG fuelling infrastructure. On December 2006 they opened a fuelling station in Forepark in The Hague that will be used by some of the 300 NGVs being purchased by the Dutch government, mostly light duty vehicles but also including a variety of other natural gas vehicles. (For more information, please visit www.dutch4.com).
The Dutch fuelling station network currently consists of seven stations with four more in the process of development Most are public with a capacity of 300 m3/hr and a bus station in Haarlem with two 800 m3/hr compressors. By 2008, dutCH4, who have put in a majority of the existing stations, anticipate expansion to 40 CNG fuelling stations.
Meanwhile the city of Haarlem currently has 85 natural gas buses and 45 taxi cabs all belonging to the transit company Connexxion. The city was one of the initial partners in the European Commission-funded BiogasMax project, however, the Dutch government was subsidizing biogas for electricity generation and not for vehicle applications. The biogas upgrading company, therefore, was not motivated to provide biomethane to the bus company and, sadly, the city of Haarlem dropped out of the BioGasMax program.
Dutch NGV lobbyists – including ENGVA – approached the government to ‘level the playing field’ and provide the same subsidy for biomethane for vehicles as they were for biogas for electricity generation. The reaction of the Dutch authorities? They leveled the playing field by taking back the subsidy for biogas for electricity generation!!
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) could also take a prominent role in the Netherlands as plans are underway with a large trucking company to develop its fleet along with a
supporting LNG fuelling infrastructure.
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