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Dutch cabinet allocates EUR 200 million for geothermal projects

Dutch cabinet allocates EUR 200 million for geothermal projects City view, Delft, Netherlands (source: flickr/ bert knottenbeld, creative commons)
Carlo Cariaga 14 Jul 2022

EUR 2 million of funding will go towards various geothermal district heating, direct use, and innovation projects in the Netherlands.

Almost EUR 1 billion has been designated by the Cabinet for six projects for sustainable economic growth in the Netherlands. EUR 200 million will go to the geothermal energy collective New Heat Now! Relating to this, chairman Teun Bokhoven and member Herman Exalto gave an interview with deVolksrant.

According to Bokhoven, the money from the National Growth Fund will go towards the goal of transitioning 26,000 houses and 800 hectares of greenhouse horticulture from gas to geothermal. Twelve heat networks are being installed and six innovative projects are being financed.

The smallest heat project in the Netherlands is in Heeg in Friesland. This is a heating network that extracts water from the Hegermeer to heat a few hundred households. Heat extracted during the summer is stored several tens of meters underground, then pumped again to heat households during winter.

One of the largest projects is in Delft, which we have previously reported on. This project will involve drilling to just over 2 kilometers and extracting hot water at a temperature of 90 degrees Celsius to heat the network. A similar project in Westland uses geothermal energy to heat not only households, but also greenhouse horticulturists.

Exalto addressed concerns over seismic activity that could be induced because of geothermal projects. He mentioned how geothermal is different from gas because geothermal systems are essentially closed-loop systems where extracted fluids are pumped back to the ground.

There are also areas in the Netherlands where geothermal drilling is not permitted, such as where it will affect the drinking water supply or where there is still a bit of gas or oil.

For the full interview, please click the link below.

Source: deVolksrant