The expectations were high in the Ecodorp in Boekel. A mega battery for heat storage should heat the 36 houses in the winter. With the energy of six hundred solar panels in the sunny months. But after four years the mega battery does not do much more than catching dust. The fact that the battery is still not running now makes it extra painful. Since now that time has come again to charge the battery for the winter.
The heat storage is a huge block of concrete. Six hundred solar panels deliver the power that heats multiple barrels with water in the mega battery – via a tube system with hot air. And they in turn ensure the heating of the houses in the winter.
But the entire system has been standing still for years. Construction of the large battery was started in 2021. And two years ago the misery for the Ecodorp started. A small fire destroyed the technical space of the installation just before delivery, for which the contractor was not insured. Not much later the contractor went bankrupt.
That the battery now, the moment the sun is shining again, is not yet working, is extra poignant. The solar panels and the battery must now do their job for the coming winter. “We are very disappointed. The battery should have been charged two winters ago,” says a spokesperson for the Ecodorp in Boekel. “Maybe it seems like a failure, but we are close to a solution.”
Just losers
The total hassle seems to be a penny issue. Cees van Nimwegen, inventor of the heat storage installation, says he still has a lot of money from the bankrupt contractor. And to be able to complete everything and get it working, he also needs money.
Before that he looks towards the Ecodorp, although he also realizes that it is a nasty situation for them. “But I don’t want to be the only loser. I didn’t deserve a cent and I don’t mind. But I do want my material costs to be paid.”
Some more adjustments
The Ecodorp and the inventor now hope to be able to put the finishing touches together without the bankrupt contractor. “I think we’re going to come out,” Van Nimwegen says. According to him, some cables still have to be adjusted in the ground. And the documentation about the battery must be made in order: “Requirements from the insurance, otherwise we cannot run the battery.”
If all that is fine, the battery can finally start turning. At the Ecodorp, they now hope that there are parties who want to jump financially, so that everything will work in about six weeks: “Then we can finally play this winter.”