For the second time in a row, SustainaBul proclaimed VU Amsterdam as the Netherlands’ most sustainable university. Oddly enough, there is not a single solar panel on campus, even though placing them should be a no-brainer: it’s sustainable, according to the Dutch Consumers’ Association you earn back the investment in an average of seven years, and as a university you can exhibit your sustainable ambitions. But despite the empty roofs on the VU campus – which seem to be begging for solar panels – the university is still without solar power.
According to energy coordinator Rooske Gaal, not every roof at VU Amsterdam is available for solar panels. The roof of the main building, for example, has another purpose: it’s a retention roof. These blue-green roofs collect rainwater during downpours so that the sewers don’t get overloaded. They also cool the building in the summer. “We deploy parts of the roofs for different types of sustainability measures. And currently, the Zuidas has a great need for blue-green roofs because of heat stress and flooding.”
Saving energy
The blue-green roofs have their purpose, but those who view the campus square from the fifteenth floor of the main building see that there are still plenty of empty roofs left for solar panels. Why are there none on those roofs? Franc van Nunen, head of the Facility Campus Organisation (FCO), does not seem to be against solar panels but explains that VU Amsterdam had a different focus. “Last period, we focused on sustainability by generating less electricity with gas and purchasing fully renewable energy. We are also renovating real estate and we’re already cooling and heating our newest buildings with underground thermal energy storages and district heating.”
‘t’s a shocking realization that VU Amsterdam is the only university without solar panels’
According to Van Nunen, VU Amsterdam is also pushing to reduce energy consumption. “After all, what you don’t use is the most sustainable.” And what about solar panels? “Those contribute to a more sustainable campus, even if it has a limited share on our total energy consumption of over 35 million kilowatt hours.” VU Amsterdam indicates that it can generate about five percent of its electricity consumption with solar panels on campus. That amounts to 1.75 million kilowatt hours of electricity, which is equivalent to about 740 households.
Green roofs and green electricity
Back to the blue-green roofs – couldn’t they be combined with solar panels? Leiden University, for example, installed 590 solar panels and 57,000 plants on the roof of the Snellius building last year. That’s good for biodiversity, it’s water-regulating and it’s sustainable. Due to the cooling effect of the plants, the solar panels also produce up to eight percent more energy. Would that be an option for VU Amsterdam? “In line with city policy, we are working toward a mix of solar panels with water storage and biodiversity”, says Van Nunen. “And we are now preparing solar panels for the new Research Building, although we still have some technical complications to overcome, such as for installation, construction and insurance.”
Green Office
“I’m very surprised that VU Amsterdam is the only university without solar panels, that’s a shocking realization”, says Mitchell Czerwinski from the Green Office. “Creating energy where you use it should be the best option. And 1.75 million kilowatt hours is a lot of electricity! The university has many sustainable goals, like decreasing its energy consumption. Getting solar panels is a simple step, it might be tricky to connect it to the VU power grid but it’s not impossible. VU Amsterdam should definitely push forward, especially with other universities that have succeeded in it.”
Czerwinski is also surprised by Van Nunen’s statement about the new Research Building. “If you’re building this big building, you would think that the VU already has thought out how they will put solar panels on it. It just seems counterintuitive to do that after the design phase.”
With solar panels, VU Amsterdam can generate 1.75 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year. At an electricity price of 0.50 euros per kilowatt hour – an average price at the time of writing – that will save the university 900,000 euros per year in electricity costs. With an average lifespan of the panels of thirty years, not counting the investment and maintenance costs, this would save VU Amsterdam 27 million euros. That is roughly the amount the board needs to cut back by 2024.
Financial trigger
The director of VU Amsterdam’s energy company, Peter Jonkers, is in favour of solar panels. “True, it’s only about five percent in volume, but that’s no reason not to do it. Especially in view of last year’s fluctuating electricity prices, it’s nice to have a stable price. If you’ve made the investment in solar panels and they last thirty years, then you know exactly how much you’re paying for your electricity for the next 30 years. So apart from sustainability, it’s also a financial trigger.” Jonkers does add a side note here, though, because insurance rates can rise once a roof becomes full of potentially flammable solar panels. “Suppose you fill up all the roofs and you have covered 5 percent of your energy needs, but your insurance goes up 15 percent. How profitable is it then? That’s a complicated story. We’ll get there, but it will take time.”
Ten thousand solar panels
For now, VU Amsterdam remains the only university in the Netherlands without solar panels. Back in 2015 the UvA, together with the HvA, installed 2,500 solar panels. Wageningen University now has more than 10,000 solar panels – in addition to 26 windmills in Flevoland. In doing so, the university generates more energy than it consumes.
So will we have to wait years for the first solar panels at VU Amsterdam, if they even come at all? Mitchell Czerwinski of Green Office: “We’re talking with FCO about getting a couple of solar panels to fuel the Green Office. A lot of sustainable initiatives are behind the scenes, like limiting flights and making sure your purchases are the most sustainable. That’s stuff you don’t see as a student, so even though it would be symbolic, having a couple of solar panels at our office shows that VU Amsterdam is working on sustainability.”
Whether and when the university will make real strides in installing solar panels remains unclear. According to Van Nunen, VU Amsterdam is deploying a “broad palette of measures in the energy transition”, which can be found in the so-called Energy Master Plan. “An update of this plan will be completed this spring.”