Report

Potential for Power-to-Heat in the Netherlands

Power-to-Heat, the application of electricity for heating purposes through industrial electric boilers, is one of the more promising examples explored in various Northwest European Member States. This report presents a high-level investment outlook for Power-to-Heat applications driven by day-ahead electricity pricing in the Dutch energy system. In order to develop a realistic outlook on the opportunities for application of Power-to-Heat in the Dutch context the assessment sets off with a characterisation of the electricity price developments in the Netherlands and Northwest Europe and an outlook on future trends in the run-up to 2020-2023, as driven by the Dutch Energy Agreement on Sustainable Growth.

The assessment concludes that opportunities for Power-to-Heat applications mainly occur during periods of low electricity pricing resulting from temporarily high contributions from (a) wind during off-peak hours in winter and (b) solar PV during peak hours in summer. Therefore, low-cost electricity occurrences should be expected in all seasons.

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