Amersfoort –On Monday, February 3, 2020, the Consulting and engineering organization Arcadis, concept developer LiveFree and the municipality of Hoogeveen announced the first hydrogen-based residential area in the Netherlands: Van der Veen yard. The sixteen houses in the Van der Veen yard will have solar panels, low-temperature heating, and buffer tanks.Â
The houses will have their own energy grid with a so-called ‘micro power plant’, whereby in the summer too much solar energy is converted into hydrogen. That surplus is then converted back into electricity and heat in the winter.
The Van der Veen estate is part of a new hydrogen district Nijstad Oost in Hoogeveen, which consists of one hundred homes, the first sixteen of which will be realized by the end of 2020. This is how the first hydrogen district in the Netherlands is created. One yard with its own power plant and the other seven with a hydrogen central heating boiler. The next step is to convert the neighboring Erflanden neighborhood from natural gas to hydrogen. By utilizing the existing natural gas pipelines for the transport of hydrogen and replacing the existing central heating boiler with a hydrogen variant.
Arcadis starts with a risk assessment and then follows the site preparation and housing preparation. In the meantime, the houses are sold to interested parties and then construction starts in December 2020. The setup requires an additional investment from the residents that is included in the price. This investment pays for itself over time due to the absence of an energy bill.
The remaining approximately eighty houses all receive a hydrogen central heating boiler upon construction. The hydrogen gas is supplied via a standard natural gas pipeline. The hydrogen is stored in the neighboring NAM location, Ten Arlo. “This is a special project,” says Alfred Nijenhuis of Arcadis. “It is hoped the prelude to a new way of supplying energy, which brings sustainability a step further in the Netherlands. It is thanks to the cooperation between the various parties that it comes to that. “Tom Krouwels of LiveFree:” This project is the first step towards a CO2 neutral sustainable energy solution that can really shape the energy transition. Initiatives from the parties involved such as the municipality of Hoogeveen and Arcadis are indispensable. ”
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