Baarlo, Limburg, Netherlands (source: flickr/ jacjanssen, creative commons)
The Directorate General for Climate and Energy of the Netherlands has announced that a grant of EUR 2 billion will be made available for at least 18 new geothermal projects in the coming years. This is part of the country’s sustainable energy transition subsidy scheme (SDE++) round of 2023, following a showing of interest in the 2022 round.
There are currently 22 geothermal projects under management or have SDE++ decisions that have not yet been realized. With the new announcement, the total number of geothermal projects in the Netherlands can reach more than 50. According to Geothermie Nederland, these projects will be able to provide sustainable heat production of 7% of the homes in the country, or up to 25% of the total Dutch heat demand in the future.
“ In recent years, too much attention has been paid to electricity in the Netherlands. 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,” commented Hans Bolcher, Chairman of Geothermie Nederland.
However, Bolscher also warned that money will not be enough to accelerate the development of new and future geothermal energy projects. “ For example, 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. ”
In late 2022, the Senate of the Netherlands passed an amendment to the country’s Mining Act to create a separate permit structure for the extraction of geothermal energy. This amendment has been published and is expected to enter into force within the 2nd quarter of 2023.
