Report

Climate-neutral Zeist

Zeist local authority has announced its intention to become climate-neutral by 2030, with ‘climate-neutral’ being defined as the same amount of renewable energy being generated as consumed in the municipality. This represents a huge challenge and will necessitate major efforts in the realms of energy conservation and renewable power generation. To aid in the fleshing out of these aspirations, CE Delft was asked to perform an analysis. In October 2016 the municipality drew up a Broad Environmental Vision, one chapter of which covered ‘Climate and energy’ and the ambition of climate neutrality in 2030. The roadmap towards this end is to be elaborated in an energy plan. This ambition can only be achieved if all the parties involved put their shoulders under implementation of the plan and for this reason the energy plan was drawn up in a collaborative effort involving citizens, local enterprises, interest groups and other stakeholders. There is consequently broad support for the plan. To elaborate this energy plan the municipality needs a better understanding of the current situation and the options available for achieving climate neutrality.

The aim of this study is to provide the local authority with more insight into:

  • current energy consumption within the municipality, per sector and per energy carrier
  • the magnitude of the challenge to become climate-neutral in 2030
  • the legislative framework and autonomous trends up to 2030
  • the potential for efficiency improvement (energy conservation) in the various (sub)sectors
  • the potential for renewable energy generation within municipal boundaries.

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