News item | 10-03-2022 | 10:45
Today, Minister De Jonge of Housing and Spatial Planning has awarded 14 municipalities a government grant for making a village, neighborhood or district gas-free. This involves a total amount of more than €50 million. Interest in the 3rd selection round of the Natural Gas-Free Neighborhoods Program (PAW) was once again great, 47 municipalities have submitted an application. A total of 64 districts, neighborhoods and villages are now working with a government grant from the PAW. These can serve as an example for other municipalities.
Minister De Jonge: ‘I think it is great to see that so many large and small municipalities have submitted an application and are ready to implement their plans together with their residents. With this program we gain important experience in making neighborhoods sustainable and future-proof. Given the current developments, we desperately need sustainable energy sources. Especially now we need to speed up the achievement of the climate goals and ensure that the Netherlands is ultimately no longer dependent on natural gas.’
Selection based on feasibility, affordability and support
The selection for this 3rd round is based on a proposal from the Advisory Committee on Natural Gas-Free Districts. Program partners, stakeholders and scientists are represented in it. In addition to the sought-after variation in approaches, all plans explicitly looked at the feasibility, affordability and involvement of the residents. Almost all approaches involve intensive collaboration with existing residents’ collectives and a great deal of attention is paid to guaranteeing affordability for residents. It is striking in the 3rd round that the cooperation with local parties is even more firmly anchored than in previous rounds and there is cooperation with universities and knowledge centers.
Many municipalities opt for a step-by-step approach to natural gas-free
With a step-by-step approach, many municipalities are focusing on insulation and hybrid heat pumps as an interim solution to natural gas-free. First, the energy consumption is reduced and later a switch is made to a sustainable heat source. In this third and final round, a specific request was made for step-by-step approaches so that municipalities can also learn from this. The municipalities that take their approach directly to natural gas-free do so mainly with low-temperature heat networks, often based on aquathermal heating. The heat transition is also smartly linked to other social issues, such as energy poverty and quality of life.
The Natural Gas-Free Neighborhoods Program contributes to learning to scale up and accelerate the energy transition
In the Natural Gas-Free Neighborhoods Programme, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, the IPO, the VNG and the Union of Water Boards are working together to provide the best possible support for municipalities and stakeholders with the district-oriented approach towards natural gas-free. The government has the ambition to gradually limit the CO₂ emissions that are released when heating our buildings. The aim is to reduce emissions to 0 by 2050. All municipalities have drawn up a heat transition vision in which they indicate in which neighbourhood, district or village a natural gas-free approach will be started before 2030 and which alternative is preferred. The PAW contributes to learning to scale up and accelerate the energy transition so that the Netherlands can get rid of natural gas.