Aquathermal energy potential: webviewer update

The Aquathermal Energy Viewer has been expanded to provide more insight into the feasibility and robustness of aquathermal energy as a heat source, and to better dovetail with the transition process to natural-gas freedom for the country. Interactive maps have been added for this purpose. The maps show the impact of the heat extraction choices, possible ecological risks, available storage capacity, and the financial feasibility of a heating network.

A new viewer feature now allows users to see the potential of TED (thermal energy from drinking water) as well. Moreover, the potential of TEA (Dutch acronym for thermal energy from wastewater) has also been expanded. And, in the specific case of TEO (Dutch acronym for thermal energy from surface water), an additional functionality, ‘the area analysis’, has been added. The webviewer allows the user to calculate potential scenarios by varying different factors, so that the depletion of the source can be taken into account. In fact, the issue of the distribution of the heat in the case of TEO is attracting growing attention.

Rutger van der Brugge, project leader and transition specialist at Deltares: ‘The new viewer goes a lot further than simply offering quick insight into whether aquathermal energy holds promise for a particular location. The additional features are valuable to users who are active in the Regional Energy Strategy, the Transition Vision for Heating, or who wish to make use of aquathermal energy at a specific location within the framework of district implementation plans.’

You can take a look at the Aquathermal Energy Viewer here.

WarmingUP

The update of the Aquathermal Energy Viewer was carried out within the WarmingUP programme, and was developed by Deltares, Syntraal, KWR and Mapgear B.V., with the collaboration of STOWA, Rijkswaterstaat and Netwerk Aquathermie. Thanks to the webviewer’s interactive maps, municipalities, energy strategists, developers and water managers can incorporate aquathermal energy into policy-making, project development and licensing.

KWR role

Within project 3A in the WarmingUP programme, KWR calculated the potential of TED for (most of) the drinking water utilities for which no TED maps were as yet available online. The results were combined with data from Waternet and PWN, which had already had the TED potential calculated by Syntraal. To respect the confidentiality of the mains data, the calculation results are presented at the neighbourhood level, so that individual mains are not visible.

The objective of the Aquathermal Energy Viewer for TED is to identify opportunities on a high level, and then to play a connecting function between the heat consumer and the source owner, the drinking water utility. The fact that drinking water utilities, as source owners, present data on the map does not mean that this potential is also actually available in every case. The actual availability of thermal energy (over time) is a function of local conditions. The values presented should therefore not be seen as a guaranteed supply of heat from the drinking water sector, but as an opportunity for the provision of sustainable heat from drinking water.