🎬 Multilingual subtitles
✍️ By: Team BC1.NL
Direct current
“Direct current is great! And sustainable, affordable, safe, and there’s more available,” says Harry Stokman, DC Expert and CEO of Direct Current, an organization with the mission to put direct current on the map.
Haven't we already switched?
To a large extent we have, says Harry Stokman. All our devices run on direct current. Ask people what the most commonly used plug is and the answer is USB, and USB is direct current. Many devices, including larger ones, will soon run on a USB plug. Electric mobility is direct current too, because it relies on batteries. And all the sustainable energy we generate is direct current as well. It is quite logical, then, to connect everything together and avoid all unnecessary conversions.
What can a lamppost on direct current do?
The lampposts in this film are fully smart. You can compare them to a USB plug with communication built in, with the lights connected to it. They have sensors, and when you cycle home in the evening you can adjust the light via an app. The power comes from renewable generation and is stored in batteries; it is a completely autonomous system.
What is in it for you?
You essentially regain full control. If you generate your own energy, direct current makes it much easier to use that energy yourself first, which matters in the debate about net metering and offsetting. In horticulture, direct current is already used successfully to control lighting in greenhouses. And at ABN AMRO work is under way on a fully direct current building, with USB-C sockets, LED lighting and solar panels connected as one system.
Where do the Netherlands stand?
At the transport level, direct current has essentially already won. The cables from the Netherlands to Norway, Germany, and the UK all use direct current. What the Netherlands is working on now is the last kilometre of the grid. According to Stokman there is no country in the world where government, grid operators, market and education are tied together on this theme the way they are here.
The Netherlands is leader in direct current
In the Netherlands, several projects have already been initiated that use direct current. This is possible because the country is the first where the entire chain collaborates together.
Also interesting: The first direct current distribution station in Europe
