Could We Dredge the Netherlands Without Fossil Fuels?

(solar.lowtechmagazine.com)

22 points | by at1as 3 hours ago

4 comments

  • an_account 1 hour ago
    Electricity generated from wind and solar with some wires to the dredge would be way easier than dredging by hand.

    Why do many environmental activists seem to want to go back to a shitty past rather than move forward to bright future.

    The historical aspects of this article are a good read though. Very interesting technology.

    • retired 1 hour ago
      I kinda like the idea of using prison labour for environmentally friendly dredging.

      But The Netherlands abolish prison slave labour in 2021 so that is no longer possible.

      • thangalin 1 hour ago
        https://nltimes.nl/2025/06/20/ethnicity-definitely-plays-rol...

        "People from minority groups are relatively more often suspected of crimes that are more likely to end in a prison sentence. There is also a higher average number of charges against people from minority groups. On the socio-economic scale, people with an immigration background are more likely to be in vulnerable positions with lower education levels.

        "The origin of a suspect influences the outcomes of the criminal proceedings against them. 'This may indicate conscious or unconscious discrimination, which goes against the principle of the rule of law, in which everyone has an equal chance of fair treatment,' the researchers said."

  • BigTTYGothGF 2 hours ago
    > those ships would require enormous chemical batteries

    In many cases they can't be all that far from land, could one set up a way to run wires?

    I also wonder about the possibility for some kind of permanent installation in select places, where small amounts of sediment are continually removed (as opposed to large amounts of sediment occasionally removed). Being permanent means you can hook it up to the grid.

    • smallerize 1 hour ago
      The Netherlands uses the largest and most powerful dredging ship in the world, The Queen of the Netherlands. Each of the dredging pumps are 8,000 horsepower (6 MW) and there are two of them. Even the short-range ship-to-shore connections used by container ships are in the 2 MW range. Running "wires" would be ambitious.
      • cenamus 50 minutes ago
        Those giant bucket wheel excavators are also electrically powered, by cables. And they use up to 16 MW, so I wouldn't call it completely unrealistic.

        Of course running them over some dirt is easier than through possibly moving water, but still.

      • quickthrowman 19 minutes ago
        > Running "wires" would be ambitious.

        It’s definitely possible, I don’t have an in depth knowledge of ships connected to shore power with cables, but if the distance isn’t too great, it seems possible.

        Raising voltage lowers the ampacity to allow for smaller conductors.

        6MW at 7200V is only ~500A, 6MW at 13.8kV is only 250A.

        There are massive electric powered hydraulic mining machines that operate connected to power cables.

    • Cthulhu_ 43 minutes ago
      For canals, I'd say yes. I mean related, before steam / fossil / etc we'd have a "trekschuit", which was a canal boat pulled by people and / or animals that walked on a path alongside the canals. Wired propulsion, if you will. I can see a system similar to trains/trams but for ships would work.
  • throwawayffffas 2 hours ago
    You do know you can burn stuff that is not dug up from the ground right? From ethanol to sun flower and coconut oil. You can pretty much just pour them in a gas tank and the engine will just work.
    • Tagbert 1 hour ago
      All too often those have bad environmental impacts of their own. Coconut oil ends up being grown in plantains that require clear cutting natural forests. The agricultural process to plant, grow and harvest sunflowers produces significant CO2 just as it does for growing corn for ethanol.
      • smallerize 1 hour ago
        I don't think anyone grows extra coconuts for fuel. It's processed from the waste after the more profitable parts are extracted.
    • seiferteric 1 hour ago
      Good point, liquid and gas fuels will continue to be important into the future where energy density is needed, fuel cells could be a good option also.
    • zahlman 1 hour ago
      Depending on the engine, perhaps. But this still releases CO2. This is not about supply limitations.
      • hakimg 1 hour ago
        These are carbon neutral as they remove atmospheric CO2 when the plant matter is grown
        • IrishTechie 46 minutes ago
          The savings in CO2 emissions for the likes of rapeseed, sunflower etc per MJ of energy is only around 50% compared to diesel. You have to release a lot of CO2 to grow these crops intensively. And that’s before you even consider where the land for these crops come from, potentially chopping down CO2 absorbing rainforests in many sorts of the world.

          Biofuel from Used Cooking Oil is worthy considering for sure, but the quantities possible are tiny compared to the petrol/diesel we use.

  • sgt101 2 hours ago
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