Municipality of Amsterdam in Netherlands applies for geothermal permit

Together with the province of Noord-Holland and energy companies Eneco and Vattenfall, the municipality of Amsterdam in the Netherlands wants to look for geothermal energy. The parties have applied for a permit at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate in the Netherlands, as reported locally.

In the long term, Amsterdam wants to move towards natural gas-free living and working and therefore needs alternative heating facilities. For part of Amsterdam and the region, a heating network is ‘the most obvious alternative’, the municipality reports.

The parties indicate that it is not yet clear where geothermal resources could be located in the Amsterdam region. Research should map that out. The results are expected in 2022. The first test drilling may be done a year later.

If the  substrate turns out to be suitable, the municipality hopes to apply for a start permit from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy in three years’ time.

In the future, more than a quarter of Dutch homes can be heated with heat from the ground, according to research commissioned by Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN) in September.

In November, EBN in Het Parool was  cautiously optimistic about the chances of geothermal energy around Amsterdam . There is a lot of information about the subsurface about the north of the country and South Holland. Oil and gas was extracted there, said Gitta Zaalberg, responsible for the investigation at EBN. “But we know little about the Amsterdam region. How is the structure? How thick are the layers of the earth? ”

Source: Parool