Column by Marieke van den Boom-Witzel: Looking for Warmth

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The municipality West Maas en Waal ways to transition homes off natural gas, with a district heating network as one option. Residents are being actively involved: door-to-door visits have been made to 700 homes, and many want to participate. Without their commitment, the energy transition is not feasible.

Alderman van den Boom-Witzel

Last summer, I was in France with my family. I really love those beautiful little French villages. This year, a question came to mind that I still haven’t found an answer to: How would all these houses be able to switch off the gas? It’s a question that came up because we’re taking West Maas en Waal steps in that direction here in West Maas en Waal .

By 2050, we must phase out natural gas

That is a national agreement that we, as a municipality, must implement. In my view, the government is responsible for providing utilities such as gas, water, and electricity. But the new way of heating homes in the future is a local responsibility.

But where do you start? 

We have begun an investigation into the options available to us for transitioning homes away from natural gas. If we switch every home to electric heating, we’ll face a problem, because there isn’t enough electricity to power it all. That means we’re going to explore whether we can install a district heating network. Research shows that the best location for this within our municipality is north of Zandstraat and west of Molenstraat. There are enough homes in that area to see if we can build a good system to heat the homes using water from the Waal River and heat from a large company.

We really need our residents’ help with this

This brings us right to our residents’ doorsteps. After all, the warmth needs to be brought inside their homes as well. That’s why we started with our residents. Over the past few weeks, city employees have visited 700 homes to explain the plans. And to ask if they’d like to join us. To my great delight, many residents have indicated that they want to take on this challenge together with us. This marks a very important step forward. Because without the involvement of our residents, there’s simply no chance of success. And when our residents think and act alongside us like this, as Alderman , I Alderman feel truly inspired.  

Marieke van den Boom - Witzel
Alderman