THE CLOUD FACTORY - Digna Sinke

Year:
2025

Length:
59 min.

Logline:
For more than 25 years, the chimney of the Amsterdam coal plant was a landmark. In 2019, the Dutch government decided in the context of the energy transition to shut down the plant at the end of that year. It would still be 6 years before the 175 more high chimney would be scrapped.

Synopsis:
Spring 2019, the government decided fairly unexpectedly that the coal plant, centrally located in the western port area of Amsterdam, would close at the end of that year. A first major step to reducing CO2 emissions in the Netherlands.
Vattenfall was the owner of the power station. An Open Day was organized in September. Everyone who worked there was allowed to invite family members or friends to show their workplace. Never before had something like this happened. It was a first farewell ritual.
The installation was still in operation at the time. Workers led their guests around the maze of the giant buildings, proud fathers explained to their children how a turbine works.
Before the end of the year, I tried to capture everything as it had gone for 25 years. The transport of the coal from the storage area (OBA) to the Hemwegterrein, the machine that scraped the coal after which they entered the building on a conveyor belt. The train where the coals collapsed. How the coals ended up in mills from there and were finely ground. The fire in the kettle…
Next to the 80-meter-high boiler house was a large hall where the generator stood, with the turbines. On the other hand, a building for the flue gas cleaning was the same size as the boiler house. From there, the smoke went up through the chimney.

On December 16, the last ritual took place. The canteen was full. Old acquaintances saw each other again, it was cozy and festive. There was a beautiful Christmas tree, there were enthusiastic speeches, but every moment was full of melancholy. Never again would the canteen be full of people.
Two days later, the night before the fire would go out, I filmed my regular position at the Hemkade at dusk. The smoke still came out of the chimney, for the last time, and mixed with grey rain clouds.
A year later, little had changed. All the buildings were still there as if they had just been abandoned. But everything was quiet.
The intention was that everything would be scrapped. That would be a giant job. A small team of people was concerned with all the problems that had to be solved before that time: cables and pipes, the entire logistics of the process, the tender.
Two months before the demolition would really start we filmed a conversation with Herman de Weerd, project leader of the demolition team, and Hans van Kroonenburg, subproject leader. They were glad that it was finally going to be started.

That year, 2022, a lot would happen: the coal transport track was demolished, the ash silos, several buildings. Spectacular was the road hoisting of the flue gas channel, a tube of tens of meters long with a diameter of 7 meters.
Demolition is high tech these days. Everything is taken apart and sorted. Titanium tubes that are squealing together. High mountains of concrete iron, waiting for the moment when the iron price would rise. The generator was sold to South Africa.

Two years later, only a metal skeleton of the boiler house remains, with the boiler in it. The chimney is standing next to it alone. Research is being done into the possibility of blowing up boiler house and chimney. A date is even set. But it’s not going to happen. It is still decided to nibble the chimney, bit by bit.
This will happen in June 2025. The largest crane in Europe is going to work, with a concrete cutter attached to its boom, controlled remotely.
The end of an era. The chimney of the Hemweg 8, once ‘the cloud factory’ with its beautiful white plume, is no longer a landmark.