To achieve its sustainability goals, the city of Antwerp is fully committed to district heating networks for the sustainable heating of buildings. However, not every location in the city is suitable for the realization of a heat network, for example because there are few nearby sustainable heat sources or because the surroundings are less suitable. Geothermal energy can often provide a solution in these locations.

Stored heat in the ground can be used via geothermal energy with a heat pump to heat buildings. In summer, geothermal energy can additionally be used to efficiently cool buildings. Typically this involves borehole energy storage or BEO in the Antwerp context (heat exchange with the ground via drilling typically 100 to 150 m deep), but cold-heat storage or ATES (heat exchange with the water from underground aquifers) is also a possibility in some parts of the city. These are by now well known technologies that have been used for many years.

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However, cities and towns in our country regularly receive requests from building owners and developers to be allowed to use public space to apply geothermal energy, often when the space on their own site is insufficient. Today, the city of Antwerp does not yet allow these possibilities on the public domain. There are also various ways in which geothermal energy can be applied collectively on the public domain. For example, we are thinking of a street where several neighbors without their own garden could, because of economies of scale, jointly install a geothermal system under their street and use it to sustainably heat and cool their homes.

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The city therefore appointed Ingenium to gain insights into the various technical, spatial, legal and organizational aspects of geothermal energy in the public domain. Together with partners D A (expert on above- and below-ground public domain construction), Xirius Public (legal expert) and AGT (expert on geothermal energy), we will detect the current possibilities, obstacles, concerns and opportunities on the basis of three concretely elaborated BEO example cases (one of which with both BEO and ATES elaborated). We will do this in close consultation with the various city departments involved, in order to deal with living concerns.

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The findings of this study will be used by City of Antwerp to shape the further policy framework and, where necessary, develop regulatory instruments, complementary to those already in place, codes and regulations.

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