City of Bruges has the ambition to be climate neutral for its entire territory by 2050.

That is why Ingenium is now studying, on behalf of the city, whether a heat network in the inner city could offer a sustainable and affordable solution. Bruges already has considerable experience with heat networks: since 1985 the waste incinerator of intermunicipal IVBO has supplied heat to the hospital AZ Sint-Jan and the prison, among others. The specific context of Bruges' inner city, with large historical building complexes (museums, hotels, schools,...) and a number of potential residual heat sources in the area (among others, IVBO's waste incinerator, brewery de Halve Maan) make the inner city potentially suitable for a heat network, despite its narrow streets.

During the assignment, Ingenium evaluates which available waste heat sources qualify to supply heat to a heat network. We study four local heat network clusters ('heat islands'): the 'city republic' around library de Biekorf, the central zone around Markt and Burg, the museum district around the Gruuthuse and Groeninge museums and finally around Oud St-Jan. For each of these clusters, we look at how a heat network can be constructed in the city, which buildings can be connected, what impact this will have on CO2 emissions and the costs involved. In the next step, we look at how these local clusters can be connected in phases to each other and to the waste heat sources to form a single district heat grid. Here, too, we are looking at how this can be constructed, what impact it has on CO2 emissions and what costs are involved.

Finally, Ingenium is also taking a long-term look at how this sustainable district heat grid could further develop in the future to other city neighborhoods, such as, for example, the area around the Beurs and the station area.