In the Climate and Energy Agreement between the provinces and the government, the provinces include how they contribute to reducing CO2 emissions, energy conservation and increased use of renewable energy sources. One of the aspects of this Agreement is to identify the opportunities for the maximum utilization of waste heat.
Using the recently published Heat Atlas (Warmteatlas) Of the National Centre for Expertise on Heat (Nationaal Expertisecentrum Warmte, NEW) by Agentschap NL, a quick scan was done of the potential of waste heat that is available per province. It can be assumed that potentially available waste heat in The Netherlands is around 100 PJ per year, about one third of the current heat consumption of Dutch households. About 57 PJ of useful heat can be used for heat supply to households (e.g. district heating). Enough for 1.2 million households and a CO2 reduction of 3,200 kton.
The provinces of The Netherlands vary widely. Both in heat supply and demand, and in view of government roles and the policy on heat. Not all provinces have to engage in active policies on waste heat or have the resources to fund projects. It is concluded that it is not possible for a generic set of policy recommendations for all provinces by which a successful use of waste heat is guaranteed.
A specific set of recommendations for every province is formulated. For all provinces together the IPO National Road-map Waste Heat was drawn up. This Road-map contains a number of concrete recommendations for the provinces, Agentschap NL and the national government. These recommendations concern the biggest obstacles in terms of legislation and facilitate the realization of waste heat projects in the provinces.
Disclaimer: For this study use has been made of data provided in the Heat Atlas published by NL Agency, which has stated that these data are not suitable for quantitative calculations. Their usefulness is thus limited to identification of potential opportunities, which was the goal of the present study. The full disclaimer of the Heat Atlas is available (in Dutch) at www.warmteatlas.nl.