The Dutch geothermal sector is to receive a grant of 2 billion Euros, which will be made available for at least 18 new geothermal projects in the near future.
Currently, the total number of realized and well-advanced geothermal energy projects in the Netherlands is 50. These projects are estimated to provide direct heating to roughly 7 percent of Dutch households, and that number is projected to rise to 25 percent in the coming years.
Hans Bolscher, chairman of Geothermie Nederland commented: “You cannot heat the whole of the Netherlands sustainably with electricity. Fortunately, we are now seeing a clear change when it comes to attention for large-scale sustainable heat production.”
Local initiatives are already taking place to reduce CO2 emissions in the Westland region. In 2022, 816,000 MWH of geothermal heat was supplied to greenhouse horticulture, which is the equivalent of 79,000 households’ annual consumption.
Despite these successes, Bolscher cautions that more efforts are needed to ensure the longevity of future geothermal developments. To ensure that the Netherlands’ climate targets are met by 2030, Bolscher says: “More heat networks and storage solutions are quickly needed to actually be able to use the sustainably-generated heat. This requires a coordinated approach between governments, geothermal companies and other stakeholders. A special task force led by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy must take care of this.”
According to the Master Plan for Geothermal Energy in the Netherlands, the country is striving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent in 2030, and by 95 percent by 2050.
To assist in advancing these goals, Eavor became one of the six market parties to work in collaboration with provinces of North Holland and Flevoland, plus municipalities of Amsterdam and Haarlem, to not only bring geothermal energy to the Netherlands, but to utilize geothermal energy on a large scale.
