Growth Fund helps NieuweWarmteNu! to realise collective heat projects
With the help of 200 million euros from the National Growth Fund, NieuweWarmteNu! (NWN!) will be able to make 26,000 houses and buildings and more than 800 hectares of greenhouse horticulture natural-gas-free. The Minister of Economic Affairs is implementing the recommendations of the National Growth Fund to support twelve concrete collective heat projects and six innovation projects of NWN!. In addition, there will be an extensive learning and development programme to ensure that the experiences gained with these so-called flywheel projects will be shared widely with future projects. The first NWN! projects will be starting as early as 2023.
The approval of this application will give a huge impulse to accelerating the phasing out of using natural gas for heating, at acceptable costs, which is why the NieuweWarmteNu! consortium is very pleased with this allocation from the National Growth Fund. According to Teun Bokhoven, chairman of the steering committee, “Reducing natural gas imports through the use of sustainable heat has become more and more urgent. The NWN! projects will ensure that many more homes and businesses will become independent from natural gas in the coming years. Moreover, they will strengthen the Dutch economy and lead to a significant CO2 reduction.”
Various sustainable heat sources such as geothermal, solar thermal and aquathermal energy, and residual heat will be used in the approved projects. Various forms of ownership and management are also being applied, with heating companies or network companies being the initiator in some projects, and municipalities or a local neighbourhood cooperative in others. The various parties in the NWN! consortium are working together to accelerate the deployment of sustainable collective heating systems. In addition to the twelve sustainable collective heating systems that NWN! will be realising in the built environment and in greenhouse horticulture, the practical implementation of six innovations will be demonstrated, such as large-scale seasonal storage of heat. By storing unused heat in the summer, sustainable heat sources can be used even more effectively.
The NWN! consortium currently consists of the following parties: heat companies (Eneco, Ennatuurlijk, Essent, HVC, SVP and Vattenfall), parties working on energy from the subsurface (EBN, Engie/Equans, Huisman and Shell), parties working on energy from water (NWB Bank and various water boards), the municipalities of Amsterdam (metropolitan area), The Hague, Groningen, Rotterdam and Utrecht, the provinces of Gelderland, Limburg and South Holland, sector organisations (Bodemenergie Nederland, Geothermie Nederland, Netbeheer Nederland and Netwerk Aquathermie), umbrella organisations of energy cooperatives (EnergieSamen and Energie van Utrecht), regional heat network Warmtenetwerk Westland (several horticulturalists, HVC, Capturam and the municipalities of Westland and Midden-Delfland), heat cooperative Warmte Samenwerking Oostland (municipalities of Pijnacker-Nootdorp, Lansingerland, Zuidplas, Waddinxveen and Zoetermeer), knowledge institutes (Deltares and TNO), and the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Climate (coordinator) and of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.