Dutch municipalities are tasked to lead the heat transition to quit gas – do they have the right tools for the job?
Author: Anna Devenish
Since the early 1960s, the Netherlands has reaped the benefits of domestic natural gas production in the Groningen gas field. In 2019, 89.5% of Dutch homes had a natural gas-fired central heating system for space heating. The country has the highest share of natural gas in residential space heating demand among European countries. However, in order to reduce seismic risks, the Dutch government decided to halt natural gas extraction in Groningen in 2018. Furthermore, the Netherlands’ Climate Act of 2019 established an ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 49% of 1990 levels by 2030, and by 95% by 2050. These trends necessitated immediate action to minimise the use of fossil fuels in many sectors of the economy, including residential heating.
The Climate Agreement, brokered in 2019, states that 7 million homes should be natural gas-free by 2050. As an interim goal, 1.5 million homes should be made ‘more sustainable’ by 2030, including insulating measures to reduce heat demand, installing heat pumps to make use of renewable electricity, connecting homes to heat networks, and increasing the use of biogas, geothermal and aquathermal energy, residual heat, and hydrogen as heating sources.
The Dutch government has tasked municipalities with leading the transition to sustainable heating. By the end of 2021, each municipality was required to adopt a municipal vision for heat transition, specifying the number of homes by district (neighbourhood) to be insulated and switched to more sustainable heating between 2022 and 2030, with a further requirement of identifying sustainable heating approaches with the lowest costs (e.g., all-electric, district heating). The decentralised approach has undeniable advantages for developing heat transition solutions with consideration for local conditions. However, decarbonising heat is a mammoth task, and the question remains whether municipalities have the necessary resources to meet it.
The cornerstone of the Dutch strategy is the district-oriented approach, which means that heat transition approaches must be developed for a specific district (neighbourhood). In 2018, the national government launched the Natural Gas-Free Neighbourhoods Programme (PAW) to test methods of phasing out natural gas as a heating source at the neighbourhood level. PAW provides grants to municipalities to establish testbeds to pilot sustainable heating and insulation technology, identify approaches for effective resident involvement, and evaluate measures for cost reductions. In the first two rounds (2018 and 2020), 50 municipalities received PAW grants (out of all 352 municipalities in the Netherlands). All Dutch municipalities have access to the knowledge generated during the implementation of these pilot projects.
The national government has developed technical guidelines and designated funds to assist municipalities in planning heat decarbonisation. The guidelines are divided into two parts. First, a technical-economic analysis was created using the Vesta Multi Actor Impact Simulation (MAIS) model to illustrate the technological viability, potential for greenhouse gas reduction, and associated costs of five sustainable heating strategies. Second, the Local Analysis Guide was prepared to help municipalities supplement the MAIS model with local data and consider local developments. In addition, the External Advice Heat Transition grant programme offers municipalities financial assistance for obtaining outside expertise necessary for heat transition planning (a total of €3,305,600 was available in 2020, €4,028,700 – in 2021, with a maximum of €20,660 per municipality). Although helpful, it is uncertain whether these means of assistance are sufficient. Obtaining appropriate resources for heat transition planning and implementation may be a more significant challenge for smaller municipalities with limited expertise and staff.
Another issue to consider is whether municipal actors have the requisite authority to compel homeowners and landlords to insulate their homes and switch to a more sustainable heating source. Since 31 December 2020, the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive has required all new buildings to be nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB). The Dutch Building Decree adopted the Almost Energy Neutral Building requirements (BENG) – as of 1 January 2021, Dutch municipalities can issue permits for new buildings only if they meet the following criteria:
· the home’s net heating demand does not exceed a certain amount specified in kWh/m2/year;
· the use of fossil fuel to meet the home's energy demand does not exceed a certain amount specified in kWh/m2/year;
· the home's energy demand is met using a certain percentage of renewable energy.
By enforcing these standards, municipalities will be on track to achieve their heat decarbonisation goals in new buildings. For existing buildings, an analogous standard has not been adopted yet. As a result, municipalities might encounter difficulties requiring decarbonisation measures in the existing building stock.
Planning and implementing heat decarbonisation are new responsibilities for Dutch municipalities. The question remains whether the municipalities have sufficient resources and the necessary enforcement mechanisms to fulfil this task.
Note: This blog post was prepared after a conversation with Dr Robert Harmsen, Assistant Professor of Energy & Raw Materials at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development, Utrecht University.
