The municipality of Leidschendam-Voorburg is actively pursuing the energy transition. They have issued a brief report setting out the basic premises of their local energy strategy (LES), which in turn serves as input for the regional energy strategy (RES). One element of the LES is a Heat Transition Vision indicating how the municipality intends to achieve the move to zero-gas heating. As part of the work on drawing up the LES, the municipal authority commissioned CE Delft to assess the potential availability of local energy sources within municipal boundaries. Armed with data on both energy demand and generating potential, the municipality can get a handle of the scope for energy neutrality at neighbourhood, estate and municipal level and assess whether the envisaged heat options are realistic.
One of the study’s conclusions is that heat-demand density is very high in most of the municipality. There is considerable technical potential for using geothermal energy to meet this demand. It may also be possible to branch off from the WarmtelinQ LdM+ heat pipe provisionally routed along the A4 highway, which traverses the municipality. There is also scope for aquathermy: heat from the raw water line and one of the Dunea drinking water lines, in particular, have major technical potential. By 2050 electricity demand is anticipated to have doubled, due largely to growth of electric transport and heat pumps. This demand can be met locally by solar panels and wind turbines. If solar pv is installed on all available rooftops, this could cover around 40-50% of future domestic and utility electricity demand. In Leidschendam-Voorburg municipality the technical potential of wind turbines is reasonably high, as there is theoretically space for eleven 5 MW turbines out-of-town. For a number of reasons, though, it will be hard, and in fact undesirable, to make full use of this potential.