The province of Flevoland wants to make the visitor centres of the Oostvaardersplassen more sustainable. By 2030, they want to generate their own energy needed for the buildings and the charging infrastructure for the visitors’ electric cars and their own service vehicles in a sustainable way. Over Morgen was asked to map the current energy consumption and the expected necessary energy demand and generation potential. Furthermore, the province requested a road map for these visitor centres, including the necessary steps to become energy neutral by 2030.
Our solution
We started by mapping the current situation in terms of energy consumption and generation. We have subsequently elaborated different scenarios based on the increase in the number of visitors in the Oostvaardersplassen and the visitor centres by 2030. The rising energy consumption for the property and the charging infrastructure for e-bikes and visitors’ electric cars has been considered as well. We have also scanned the car fleet of the forestry commission service vehicles to determine when it would be possible to start replacing vehicles with an electric alternative.
Based on all this data, we have determined the expected energy consumption in 2030 for each scenario, for all property and including the mobility of visitors and employees. Afterwards, we have calculated how much additional generation capacity is needed in order to be energy neutral in each scenario by 2030. We have listed all possible options for implementation; the province of Flevoland will now be able to make an informed choice and ensure that the Oostvaardersplassen visitor centres can be advertised as climate-neutral in 2030 and therefore remain attractive to their visitors – even if they want to come by e-bike or electric car.