MINEWATER PAYOFF
[BIZ/GOV: Heerlen, December 5] The price that end users pay is made up of two parts: one part is a fixed payment and there is a sum for energy consumption. With traditional energy, the fixed part is 30% and 70% is for energy consumption. With minewater, it’s the other way around — 70% is fixed and 30% is for energy use — because the users of minewater insulate their buildings better. However, as the price of energy consumption is rising far faster than the fixed rates, the expectation is that minewater energy, in the long-term, is going to be cheaper than the traditional forms. CorioEnergy NV Client Summit in Bali New Forms of Energy The cross-border business site at Avantis is the dynamic and economic heart of all of this and it is also providing an excellent example of investment in sustainable energy projects on the street, at school and in the area. Thanks to the Minewater Project, Heerlen is proud of its past as an energy provider and proud of its future. Heerlen means energy. The project is led by Heerlen, Weller, BRE, WFG Kreis Aachen, BRGM, Bönen, and is in part financed by the Interreg III-B program of the European Union.
Heerlen is going to recoup its investment in the Minewater Project. The heating and cooling of buildings with mine water does not cost customers more than traditional energy. Furthermore, for the same price, energy can be supplied which causes 55% less greenhouse gas, and buildings connected to the minewater system have a more pleasant indoor climate. Now it looks as if the Heerlen investment in the Minewater Project can be earned back. The council is accordingly asking the municipality to move towards setting up CorioEnergy NV, a minewater production company.
In order to earn the investment on the Mine Water Project back, and to start negotiations with potential customers, a legal form is necessary and CorioEnergy is going to provide semi-fabrications to major users and will have its own power station to process these further. CorioEnergy will own the five wells that have been drilled in the city over the past two years, the piping between them, and the heat exchangers and meters that have been installed at the customers’ premises.
Just when world leaders are going to the climate summit in Bali to talk about measures to reduce the increase in greenhouse gasses, Heerlen is showing that it’s possible to do this at a local level. The Mine Water Project is of great value for the future but it also links with the past, when coal was necessary to heat houses, and then as a result of mining the coal the mining galleries came into existence, and after the closure of the mines the galleries filled with water. And that water, in the future, can be used to heat and cool using a clean and sustainable system.
Heerlen is the first city in the world to use mine water for this purpose. The project can also expect to generate worldwide interest.
New Energy holds Heerlen together and links the past and the future of the city. In addition, New Energy also relates environmental concern to the improvement of the economic infrastructure. Heerlen offers an attractive climate for investment for companies and research institutions where they are concerned on a daily basis with innovative and future-oriented solutions for the energy equation.
http://www.minewaterproject.info/