Ingenium is investigating the feasibility of a heat network in Zelzate for the Province of East Flanders and the Municipality of Zelzate. Various industries are active in the wider vicinity of Zelzate, which have a large amount of residual heat at their disposal. Many companies find that their production processes generate a lot of residual heat. Today, this heat is simply blown away into the ambient air. We can also connect this waste heat via a heat network to other buildings or companies with energy needs. They can then use this waste heat instead of fossil energy or electricity. This will yield substantial energy gains and consequently reduce CO2 emissions and greenhouse gases. The starting point of this feasibility study for the construction of a heat network is a list of the opportunities and bottlenecks that can be expected in the construction of the heat network, as well as an indicative business case to estimate the economic potential. This information will be made freely available later so that heat network operators will have a strong starting point for the rollout of a heat network in subsequent years.

Within the study, the following are considered:

1. Inventory of opportunities and obstacles to the construction of a heat network and development of an indicative route
2. Research economic analysis including identification of parameters with greatest impact on possible feasibility
3. Elaboration of rudimentary business model

This project is part of the European-funded project DOEN. DOEN is developing a roadmap and toolbox for energy brokers so that they can get started in a concrete and structured way.