Netherlands Biomass Power Tender

With the opening of the new biomass power station the Meppelse Nieuwveense Landen new residential area will be permanently heated from Friday. The district can serve as an example for other areas that need to get started with the energy transition because biomass can be an intermediate step for the rollout of large heat networks. You can see it as a transition within a transition.The technical service provider developed the biomass power plant and is responsible for the production of heat and cold. This is in line with the role that the company sees for itself. We want to make the step to energy service provider and energy supplier says Edwin Normann Smart Energy Manager at Croonwolter dros.Croonwolter dros produces and supplies the heat and cold to MeppelEnergie. The faade of the biomass power plant is the dividing line says Normann. From that moment on MeppelEnergie is responsible. They developed the central distribution system that will ultimately provide 400 to 450 homes with hot and cold water. The shares of the company are 50 percent owned by the municipality. The other half is owned by the local sustainable energy company of grid operator Rendo.Sustainable heat from biomassThe biomass power station in Meppel produces heat using pellet boilers. The pellets are produced from clean from the Netherlands residual wood from the wood processing industry. For example it involves pieces of wood sawdust and wood that protects the load during transport stop wood. In short clean wood with a short lifespan. This means that no trees are cut down for incineration in the biomass power plant. The CO2 emissions of the plant are 70 percent lower than the emissions that natural gas heating would generate.The wood pellet boilers heat the water to 70 degrees Celsius. The hot water then goes through pipes to the houses and is used there for underfloor heating the shower and tap water. In the summer cold water comes from the central the houses. Example for other areasAlready in 2008 the municipality of Meppel decided that the Nieuwveense Landen new housing estate should become sustainable. The crisis played a major role in this remembers Dirk Dijkstra of MeppelEnergie. That was the reason for the municipality. When the crisis broke out everything fell silent. In order to get permission for the construction the plan had to be sufficiently sustainable. This pragmatic approach now ensures that the Meppel district can be an example for other areas. MeppelEnergie uses the tariffs according to the heat law and the no more than different principle so that the heating costs for the residents are not higher than with traditional gas heating. In addition MeppelEnergie gives a discount on the gigajoule price.Natural gas consumption is an advantage for the residents says Dijkstra because the costs that the switch from natural gas to natural gas entails will save these people. Here it is already solved at the front he says. Nieuwveense Landen is an example of how a residential area can get rid of the gas.Energy transition on a small scaleNormann also thinks that the residential area in Meppel can be an example for other areas. I think it is a good example for small to medium-sized residential areas for areas that traditionally have no district heating yet. It is an interesting precursor to larger heating networks. You start with a small area with this technique and over 10 to 15 years when we get further we connect several of these nets together. You can see it as a transition within a transition. When the energy transition is complete the biomass power plants can be used for co-firing.Normann does not see heating with biomass plants as the solution for the energy transition but as one of the solutions that makes the energy transition possible. Dijkstra agrees. For example he also sees opportunities in the developments surrounding hydrogen and green gas. For example Rendo will apply 10 percent green gas from 2019 onwards. Then there is almost nothing to change in peoples homes. This makes the energy transition very affordable. Also for the existing building. Biomass for heating residential areasCurrently biomass is still little used for the heating of residential areas. Normann knows that there are projects in Lelystad and Breda but it is mainly used in greenhouse horticulture and for the heating of swimming pools. Unknown is unloved he thinks. In addition fear of nuisance due to odor noise and transport movements may play a role.At the same time Normann states that the nuisance can fall into all these areas. A favorable location and approach route of trucks prevent nuisance from transport and noise can be damped by good insulation. Whether odor nuisance will take place should prove practical but he expects a well-hot-fired boiler to prevent nuisance in this area.Biomass power plants opportunities for existing buildingsDespite the fact that biomass heating in Meppel has been applied at a new residential area Normann sees opportunities for the application in existing buildings. Such as apartment buildings and residential areas from the sixties or seventies or homes built for that time. Homes or buildings where insulation is not suitable for all sorts of reasons. For example if insulation is a costly business due to the age of the buildings.That the sustainability of the existing building still offers opportunities is shown by the sustainability issue that the Netherlands stands for. In order to meet the Climate Goals of Paris the Dutch government wants to make 30000 to 50000 existing homes free of gas by the end of 2021. Ultimately that must be 200000 houses per year to make the entire housing stock in the Netherlands more sustainable by 2050.