Unique joint venture started in The Hague: City area connected to geothermal heating system
Four thousand households in The Hague South West will be supplied with geothermal energy. The municipality of The Hague, the energy suppliers ENECO Energie en E.On and the housing corporations Haag Wonen, Staedion and Vestia have settled an agreement to Carry out this geothermal heating project in a joint venture. Applying geothermal heating for the benefit of a residential area and the joint effort are both unique in The Netherlands.The Hague opts for this so called geothermal energy for two major reasons: heat extracted from the soil is inexhaustible and there is no emission of hazardous gas. This project will result into a reduction of 4.000 CO2 annually in the area. This fits into The Hague’s goal to develop into a CO2-neutral city halfway through this century.
The six partners today signed the agreement for the joint venture Geothermie Beheer CV.
In the next five years approximately four thousand new houses and a number of industrial buildings will be supplied with geothermal energy. Alderman of Constructing and Living, Marnix Norder is delighted that after a period of research the project is actually getting started. “Connecting a city area to geothermal energy is a major step. I sincerely hope that this becomes regular for all new housing projects, wherever possible”.
The project requires an investment of 46 million Euro. Part of the investment is constructing the geothermal source. However the major investments concern constructing the pipes and other facilities that enable connection of the houses to geothermal energy. The future occupants will not be confronted with high energy rates. Part of the agreement is that their heating bills will not exceed the bills of occupants who use natural gas. If possible their bill will be even lower.
Norder: “This project proves that durable energy doesn’t have to be more expensive than fossil fuel”.
Underfloor heating
Surveys showed that in the area around Leyweg/Meppelweg there is an appropriate location for extraction of geothermal energy. The source consists of two wells; one which enables pumping up of the hot water from the soil; and the second well, which allows the water -after cooling- to flow back to the bottom. This will be possible to a depth of 2200 metres, pumping up water with a temperature of 75 °C. This geothermal energy will be transported to the district heating network through heat exchangers. Via this network of pipes the energy eventually will be distributed to the houses. These will be equipped with underfloor heating instead of a radiator. That enables steady heating of the houses. These houses meet the severe requirements on energy insulation, the so called energy performance coefficient that applies for new houses. Construction of the well has been scheduled by mid 2008. The activities will take some months to finish. In winter 08/09 the first set of houses are going to be connected to geothermal energy.
More information: www.denhaag.nl/klimaat