Netherlands:

End reliance on natural gas: Dutch gov’t invests in geothermal technology (NL Times)

Henk Kamp, VVD, Economic Affairs

In the coming years the Cabinet is going to invest in ensuring that Dutch homes and business are less reliant on natural gas for heating, instead heating properties with renewable heat or leftover heat.

This is according to a letter that Minister Henk Kamp of Economic Affairs wrote to the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, on Tuesday. Nearly 60 percent of all the energy consumed in the Netherlands, is used in the generation of heat. Currently natural gas is used for this in almost all of the Netherlands.

According to Minister Kamp, a lot of the generated heat is still lost and can be used more efficiently, for example by using leftover heat from the industry to heat households and businesses. “This saves energy and causes up to 75 percent less CO2 emissions compared to a household with a central heating system.” Kamp said. Dutch company Nerdalize has come up with an innovative way to use leftover heat by placing computer servers in households instead of in conventional data centers, and using the heat generated by the servers to warm up the house.

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