Unilever, TU Delft Powered by Eneco Luchterduinen OWF

Since 1 January 2017, the Technical University Delft and all Dutch office and manufacturing locations of the Unilever consumer goods group have been buying electricity generated by the Eneco Luchterduinen offshore wind farm.

Each year, Unilever will purchase almost 70,000MWh of electricity generated by the Dutch offshore wind farm in the North Sea.

As announced last year, the Technical University Delft decided to only purchase sustainable electricity generated in the Netherlands from 2017 onward. The choice of green electricity is part of the university’s policy of a highly-sustainable campus and to halve its CO₂emissions by 2020 compared with 2012. By purchasing green electricity from Eneco’s Luchterduinen wind farm, the university will reduce its CO₂ emissions by 60%.

This was reported within Eneco’s results for 2016.

In 2016, Eneco Group made a net profit of EUR 199 million, slightly down on the figure of EUR 208 million for the previous year. Combined revenue fell to EUR 3.9 billion from EUR 4.3 billion in 2015. The operating profit of the Network Company (Stedin) fell by 23% to EUR 214 million while its revenue rose to EUR 1.2 billion. Operating profit of the Energy Company (Eneco) rose by 93% to EUR 106 million although revenue fell to EUR 2.7 billion.

The Group reported that its total operating expenses rose by EUR 93 million (6%) to EUR 1,624 million, mainly as a result of investment in promising business activities and innovation, precario and activities related to the unbundling.

Interest-bearing debt increased in 2016, largely as a result of an agreement with a banking consortium for the refinancing of the Eneco Luchterduinen wind farm, which has been in operation since 2015.

Guido Dubbeld, CFO of Eneco Group, said: “In 2016, our available sustainable energy generation capacity rose to 2,054 MW, mainly because we brought a number of wind farms on stream or had been able to acquire them. Against this background, I am very pleased that Eneco is a member of two consortia selected for the construction of two large off-shore wind farms: Norther off the Belgian coast and Borssele III & IV off the coast of the province of Zeeland. Both projects will give an enormous boost to making energy in the Netherlands and Belgium more sustainable.

“Furthermore, we could offer our customers lower prices for electricity and gas as we were able to obtain better purchase prices. We did, however, face higher costs during the past year. Stedin saw municipal taxes for encroachments on or over public land (precario) rise sharply. The cost of the forced unbundling of our business from 31 January 2017 also rose. We were able to absorb the higher costs thanks to focused efficiency measures.”