First CNG filling station in Province of Utrecht

The ceremonial opening of Utrecht's first public compressed natural gas (CNG) filling station was attended by alderman for the city of Nieuwegein Johan Everdingen and Mr Wouter de Jong, delegate of the Province. In his speech, De Jong made a strong appeal to the Dutch government to make it mandatory for the oil companies to provide sustainable fuels at all filling stations along the Dutch highways. "It is the only way to give the use of this type of fuels the boost this country needs."

Until now, the region of Utrecht knew only a few private CNG filling points, which were not available for public use. Including the one in Nieuwegein, there now are seventeen public filling points in the Netherlands. From now on, this number will rapidly grow to at least 250. In the Province of Utrecht alone, two more will open this year and by the end of 2010 there should be eight public CNG stations in the province.

With a little help
A subsidy granted by the Province should help accelerate this development. Owners of filling stations are eligible for up to EUR 100,000 subsidy if they invest in the necessary equipment. To make the purchase of CNG-propelled cars more interesting for inhabitants, the Province rewards the first 2,500 to 3,000 buyers with EUR 1,000.

“As we see it, CNG is the perfect solution to reduce the emission of fine particles in urban areas, among other environmental advantages”, proclaimed De Jong. “Besides that, is a perfect transition fuel on our way to the use of biogas. The production of biogas is rocketing at the moment. The nice thing about CNG is that the pipeline system to transport it already exists, and the nice thing about biogas is that it is easy to mix with CNG: you just feed it into the grid.”

CNG highway
Yesterday's opening of the CNG station in Nieuwegein is very significant for a rapid growth of the number of CNG-propelled cars. The point is well-chosen, as Nieuwegein is located between three major highways and has six exits, to all directions. “With the station in Middelburg [in the South-West of the Netherlands, MiM] opening soon, it is possible to drive a CNG vehicle from the very southwest of our country up to the very north and back without running out of CNG,” so told a very happy Mr E. Kermink, general director of CNG Net, one of the participants in this project.

Next month another station will open its doors in Amersfoort, the second largest city in the province of Utrecht, and this autumn, the city of Utrecht will get its first CNG refilling point. That could be important for taxi drivers in the city.

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