Upscaling the residential heat provision towards the district scale

Abstract

The world has been facing a detrimental climate change since the beginning of the industrial era due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are expected to increase exponentially whereas the energy sector is the largest pollutant. Households in the Netherlands are one of the dominant final end users of energy and a transition within this group could contribute to reducing GHG emissions. Local authorities endorse efforts to implement energy policies, but face the complexity in actor networks. This research focusses on how public, private and civic actors manage upscaling residential heat-generating facilities to district scale in the built environment in the Netherlands. While measures to reduce the GHG emission for electricity seem decisive, the vast majority of the Dutch households retain a carbon lock-in for heating. A motion towards decarbonisation is an area-based approach in which deep geothermal district heating networks. Although scholars acknowledge the existence of barriers and opportunities of upscaling the residential heat provision to district level, little literature is found on cases where the existing residential building stock is adapted for renewable district scale heat-generating facilities with geothermal energy as source in the Netherlands. This research addresses the knowledge gap on the management of upscaling geothermal district heating networks by public, private and civic actors by performing an actor analysis. The main goal of the research is to gain understanding in the local approaches and efforts of Geothermal District Heating Development (GDHD) and aims to clarify, gather and model the involved actor roles. Empirical research on the managerial actor roles is performed on the development project of Ammerlaan-TGI and Haagse Aardwarmte Leyweg (HAL). The findings on the case study reveal compiled chronologic events managed by a variety of actors. While actors are interwoven with each other by their dependencies, their managerial roles are evaluated on using management aspects in a cross-case setting, indicating how related management aspect variables apply to the GDHD. The outcome is assessed by experts who participated in a two-round Delphi-study from which effective roles for upscaling of geothermal district heating in the coming years is determined. The results show a large public actor integration in GDHD and role segregation among the actors, pointing out the immaturity of the sector. The public actors need to continue using stimulus tools and develop regulatory tools to foster maturation of the sector and evoke competitive advantage. Also their capacity building tools should be used to their full extent to match the heat supply and demand. Consensus between public, private and civic actors is considered most effective in GDHD, where through intensive communication, negotiation and decision making is agreed on the desired environmental quality for the built environment, our built environment.