Another day in Twente, another college tour—but centered around sustainability! As mentioned in the last post, Twente has a closed campus that allows for more nature than most Netherlands universities and as a result has more biodiversity than other campuses. They even won a competition for it. While their location is favorable towards it, biodiversity is only possible with a conscious effort to maintaining the wildlife even when taking over its space. In addition to the self-sustained nature, the campus also offers gardens run completely by students on an application basis. The opportunity for the student community to grow their own crops not only provides healthy food items, but also cuts down on the transportation costs of buying for a grocery market which also cuts down the CO2 that would’ve been produced in such a process. While the natural environment of the campus is a great defining point, my favoritee part of the tour is learning about the cooling system shown below. Water in the winter is collected in the reservoir and is utilized as a source of cooling for the surrounding buildings. For every one unit of energy used, 7 units of cooling are provided. In a university setting where temperature control is both important and costly in many lab settings, having a source of temperature that’s sustainable is extremely useful. 

Moving beyond the campus and beyond the wooden windmills of Zaanse Schans past, we visited a modern windmill farm. Their both energy and crops are formed to make the best use of the space provided. The farm in total can create up to 500 MegaWatts of air energy an hour—yet, it’s not left running 24/7. The farm is privately-owned, so rather than supplying energy freely to a specific region, they pay to use government channels to deliver energy to the local area and make agreements with businesses to sell their excess energy to them. The nature of these transactions limits the amount of time the windmills are left running since any excess energy that can’t be sold or stored loses them money, so they shut off the windmills when needed. Additionally, since renewable energy is common in the Netherlands a stock-market-esque system formed where the price of renewable energy regularly fluctuates. While I have some concerns about the efficiency of such a system, the fact that renewable energy is so widespread across the country that the system can be implemented is inspiring. (Note: solar energy is also a part of this system. It’s interesting, I don’t think we have anything quite like this in the US).

Finally, our trips ended with a visit to Edelberg, a historical town built in the late 1300s that’s been preserved since TIME. It’s a great example of what a medieval town looked like from the stone streets where oxen used to trot, moats and walls built for fortitude, and buildings with large doors for livestock. The town also provides a great example of the influence of different religions from the pagan protection runes placed in its original creation, the Catholic Churches that were built and then reused for Protestantism, and a synagogue for the Jewish community prior to WWII. I live in Gettysburg, so I’m used to walking around buildings preserved for centuries, but none to the age or the extent as Edelberg. In Edelberg, it wasn’t a battle that marked the town as a historical landmark, but a mayor who wanted to preserve history and increase tourism. With this in mind, I can’t help, but be curious about what preservation will look like in the future and whether there will be any conflict with sustainable practices.