Energy farming at its finest

More and more people are returning to buying products straight from farmers and artisanal shops instead of purchasing from supermarkets and mega malls. The feeling of satisfaction that comes with knowing the origin of your food, clothes or furniture is huge. And of course the assurance that knowing whatever you’ve bought is not made under sketchy circumstances or is leaving Godzilla-sized ecological footprints, helps. But why aren’t we doing the same for the energy that powers our house? Probably because we didn’t know it was possible, until now.

Non-profit goals.

Admitted, the concept of an energy farmer might sound a bit weird, but the people at Vandebron thought differently. What if energy could be farmed in a way that is sustainable, and have it delivered straight from the farmer to your home? You pay the farmer instead of a power company, and the farmer stores your annual usage on the national power grid. Easy. By doing so, the farmer is no longer held hostage by power company rates and profit margins, and the customer only pays for the exact amount of energy used. Cutting out the middleman made sense, so the people at Vandebron did and created a market place for people who want to sell the energy they’ve generated. The difference between Vandebron and your average power company is that Vandebron does not take a profit margin. Sounds right, doesn’t it?

Getting back on target

The necessity of smart energy solutions is getting harder and harder to ignore, as the effects of a changing climate are measured worldwide. And even though the Netherlands is one of the first countries that will notice when things go south, we’re still miles away from reaching our sustainability targets as set by the EU. With companies like Vandebron working towards creating smarter energy, getting back on target isn’t just possible, it becomes likely to happen.

Return of the windmills

Most countries have their own methods for going sustainable. Some use hydroelectric systems, like dams to harness power, others use solar panels for solar energy. In the Netherlands however, we can hardly utilize hydro energy due to the monotonous nature of our landscape, and sunshine is not quite what we’re known for, so we need to make full use of what we do have. Luckily, we have wind. A lot of it. And because we have so much of it, utilizing it to its full potential is sometimes easily overlooked. Granted, we are already sporting a huge amount of wind parks. Offshore, on land, in and around cities – we’ve seen it all. But with the game-changing system Vandebron offers, we can start working on increasing the number of wind energy farmers. And it doesn’t stop there, Vandebron offers power generated by other types of sustainable methods as well, such as solar power, and the processing of bio-waste materials.

Making power companies redundant is a bold move to make, but Vandebron is facing the challenge head-on. In a market that is shut tight, highly conservative, and still not very sustainable, a breath of fresh air is very welcome. Literally.

Aart van Veller, founder of Vandebron, is one of our speakers for Amsterdam Talks Tech: Smart Energy on June 15^th. This night is all about sharing thoughts, ideas and innovations in the world of smart energy, so make sure to claim a spot.