Mijnwater, heating and cooling grid, Netherlands - Green Solutions Awards 2019 Winner
Thanks to its first place for the Sustainable Infrastructure Grand Prize of the international platform, the Mijnwater project qualified for the final... and also won the Grand Prize at the international level!
The heating and cooling developed and operated by Mijnwtaer B.V is probably the most innovative district heating grid in Europe. It uses a resource that remained untouched until the municipality of Heerlen conducted a study in 2005 into the possibility of using water from the ancient mines filled with groundwater over the decades.
The geothermal source heats and cools 250,000 m2 of buildings: large office buildings, supermarkets, shops, educational buildings, industry and 400 dwellings.
In this ‘5GDHC’ grid (5th generation), the energy from heating and cooling is exchanged between customers. Surplus is stored in the water present in the mine galleries for later use. Cooling buildings in the summer helps to charge the storage with heat for the winter.
This network makes use of a system of heat pumps that are positioned near the end users. The large reduction of energy demand allows CO2 emissions per unit to be reduced by about 65%.
The easily reproducible nature of this technology is its main advantage. 5GDHC technology can be adapted to all types of thermal energy sources. Pilot projects are already under development in Parkstad-Limburg, near Heerlen, while the European D2Grids project plans to roll-out this type of thermal grids throughout Northwest Europe.
Heating & cooling grid
Heerlen, Netherlands
- Project holder : Mijnwater BV
- Builder : Mijnwater BV
- Manager / Dealer : Mijnwater BV
Discover the case study linked with this article.