Brussels
Be.SHARE - Brussels Sustainable Heating and Renewable Energy community
Be.SHARE will test a local, low-temperature Carbon Neutral Heating and Cooling Network for the Brussels North District – a dense urban neighbourhood characterised by a mix of high-rise offices and fragile neighbourhoods with social housing. The network will harvest renewable energy under the public domain – geothermal units beneath parks and roads, and heat recovery from wastewater (riothermal technology) – and directly exchange energy between office and residential users with very different heating and cooling needs. A Public-Private-Community governance model ensures collaboration between public and private actors, academics and grassroots organisations.
Our main challenges...
Most buildings in the energetically and urbanistically dense Brussels North District use fossil fuel (natural gas) for heating, contributing to high carbon emissions and low air quality.
Individual buildings lack access to the ground to benefit from geothermal or other forms of renewable energy on their own plot.
Legal and operational barriers exist to harvesting thermal energy from the public domain.
and proposed solutions
A Carbon Neutral Heating and Cooling Network – based on advanced technologies and a double loop network – to enable exchange of thermal energy between buildings with complementary needs.
Exploitation of local renewable energy sources under the public domain: geothermal wells under parks and roads, and upscaling of a patented Riothermal installation in the local sewage collector.
A Public-Private-Community Governance model engaging public utilities, private experts, academics and grassroots organisations, which will engage 331 low-income households in the CNHCN’s design, empowering them to participate in their own energy transition.
Key figures
Milestones
Permit applications for the network and the energy sources (boreholes and riothermal installation).
Drilling works for 114 geothermal boreholes.
Putting the overall Carbon Neutral district Heating and Cooling Network into operation.
331 low-income households engaged in their own energy transition through increased understanding and changes in their energy behaviour, including 201 low-income successfully connected to the Carbon Neutral Heating and Cooling Network.
