The energy transition is accelerating. Solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars have become part and parcel of the Dutch landscape. We are quite happy with that, but meanwhile we often forget what is our biggest form of energy consumption at home: heat. Nice hot showers, pleasantly warm floors. Long live gas! At least for a while, because in 25 years’ time, the gas boiler should be a thing of the past. Then we will no longer talk about central heating boilers, but about heat networks – underground networks with hot water. These will supply a third of our country with heat. But why are these heat networks now being set up by a few monopolistic companies from other countries, using residual heat from the fossil fuel industry?
In the VPRO Tegenlicht episode ‘Gas eraf: Warmtenetten!’, we see how something extraordinary is happening at neighbourhood level. Scattered across the country, citizens and local governments are trying to teckle the enormous challenge of setting up heat networks themselves. And sure enough, it turns out to be cheaper, more reliable and, last but not least, more sustainable. Watch the episode with English subtitles here.