Challenge

The city of Antwerp wants Linkeroever to be climate-neutral by 2030. Linkeroever is one of the pilot areas for the construction of a heat network that will be connected to residual heat from the port. However, owners of houses and apartment buildings are faced with the failure of fossil heat installations before the heat network is operational. The city of Antwerp wants to avoid investing in new gas installations by developing an innovative type of Energy Hub. This Energy Hub should be able to offer fossil-free (or hybrid) heat to apartment buildings on a large scale (around 200 residential units). It is a temporary hub (relocatable), which takes the form of a modular heat pump and can be fitted into the public/private domain. The combination of these elements is currently not yet on the market. To accompany this process and relieve citizens, the city - in co-financing with a Flemish project subsidy for city policy and PIP - is taking on the development of the pilot hub.