We raise a glass to a successful 2025!
Retrospective New Year's Reception 2025
Last week was marked by our New Year’s reception. The theme this year was connection, cooperation and looking ahead to a sustainable 2025. The gathering, held at Skybar NOK, brought together partners, stakeholders and employees to jointly kick off a year full of new energy and ambitions.
During the reception, our CEO, Marieke Abbink, gave a powerful and inspiring speech in which she looked back on the past year’s achievements and set the course for 2025. She emphasised the important role of our regions Groningen, Drenthe and Noord-Holland within the energy transition and expressed her gratitude for the efforts and commitment of all partners and colleagues.
Setting the course for a new strategy
Welcome to our New Year’s reception. First of all, I would like to wish everyone a very happy new year! It is great to see that we have all come together here in the Forum in Groningen, overlooking the city and surrounding countryside. Because New Energy Coalition is all about working together. What can we achieve together that a single organisation cannot achieve alone?
Multi-year strategy plan
As New Energy Coalition, we have concluded our multi-year strategy plan period 2021-2024. We have more than achieved, and in many cases exceeded, the goals associated with this period that we defined together. Together, we brought in more than a quarter of a billion in renewable energy investments for projects and knowledge. Let me share some figures so you get an idea of what that looks like. Together, we developed more than 80 new projects, more than 20,000 participants took part in our education activities and some 15,000 people attended our events. We have worked on great projects that are very diverse. I will not list all 80 of them, but examples of these projects are the AI Hub, ConsenCUS, Waterstof Werkt (in which secondary vocational, higher vocational and scientific education work together with companies; the practor, lector and professor) and North Sea Hydrogen Valley Ports. We developed and implemented these projects together. Now it is time in the coming period for the next step in cooperation in the region.
Groningen and Drenthe
In the Groningen and Drenthe region, a foundation has been laid with the New Energy for Groningen plan to boost the region’s broad prosperity in the coming period with sustainable energy, and hydrogen in particular. With this, we are making a contribution to Nij Begun. This concerns not only the energy sector, but also regionally important industry and employers.The initiative to make Industry Cluster East Groningen more sustainable using hydrogen is a good example of this.
Noord-Holland
In Noord-Holland, too, we have made great strides and built a powerful energy cluster. Here, we are involved in developing the second national Hydrogen Valley in Europe. But we are also busy developing smart regional energy systems in the area.
Collaboration
The main thrust of what we do is cooperation.In the coming period, we will continue to intensify cooperation in the region to develop a new energy economy in Noord-Holland and in Groningen/Drenthe. This is already being followed up in Noord-Holland through cooperation with the North Sea Canal Area and in Groningen/Drenthe through the connection with Bremen.
We often agree that we need to work together. In practice, however, this is not so easy! Working together requires an open attitude, courage and patience. Working together doesn’t come naturally either, but together we have an enormous amount of knowledge, experience and energy. Now we need to make it concrete. Who will pick up what? What will companies do, the ports, knowledge institutions and governments? We live in uncertain times, and that can slow us down or paralyse us. But; Uncertainty is no excuse. We need to get going.
Looking forward to 2025
With the 2025 goals firmly in mind, New Energy Coalition is committed to continuing to drive innovation, make new connections and make a crucial contribution to a sustainable future. As Marieke aptly said, ‘Working together does not happen automatically, but together we have a huge amount of knowledge experience and energy. Let’s make it concrete now!’
We thank everyone who attended for the inspiring evening and look forward to a successful and energetic 2025!
