May 17, 2009

We arrived and after staying up for 36 hours straight and jumping right into the program I managed to learn quite a bit in the little time I have been here. As an American I thought ranking of energy uses would be very different. In order the energy sources used in the Netherlands are 1) Gas 2) Oil 3) Coal 4) Nuclear and then 5) Solar and Wind. The wind turbines in the Netherlands face quite a bit of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard). Everyone wants it but no one wants to look at them. I personally think it would be great to look at wind turbines. We keep seeing a row of wind turbines and those are on the Germany border where no one lives in the country except cows. The Dutch in the area are very upset that the Germans did not take into consideration their neighboring country. I look forward to learning more about the energy policies over the next few weeks.