Energie-Cités member - Heerlen (the Netherlands) is producing new energy from old mines

Today, European municipalities are facing the economic crisis and are confronted with abandoned industries and mass redundancies on their territories.

In a similar way, several decades ago the mining industry in the province of Limburg has provided the Netherlands with thousands of jobs.
Once, the development of the city of Heerlen from a small village into a city of 95000 people happened thanks to the mining industry itself.

But this industry has been dormant ever since the 1970s and Heerlen suffered from many typical post mining problems, including a severe loss of identity as almost everything from the mining past has been destroyed.

However, due to the shift of the political agenda towards new goals such as sustainable development, economy, employment and education, Heerlen has found a new identity in its green energy.

Therefore, these days, the city is exploiting the legacy of an abandoned industry by demonstrating how flooded coal mines can be used in a safe and ecological way.
Warm and cold water from the mines started to be used to heat and cool 440 new houses, 57000 m² of non residential new buildings, 84500 m² of non residential existing buildings that will be connected to the mine water grid in Heerlen.

The first mine water energy plant in the world (source: Weller housing corporation):

Heerlen is proud to show that the initiative is adaptable by other European local authorities to their own previous mining areas as extracting geothermal energy from the water in former and closed mines on a large scale is not only technically possible, but is also economically viable and environmentally sound.

So today, Heerlen has proved that changing of mindsets is necessary if we want to use our local resources in a creative way by transforming a neighbouring run out industry in a new local solution for sustainable energy.

For further information:

www.minewater08.eu
www.remining-lowex.org
Contact: Hans van der Logt, Municipality of Heerlen
This video tells the story of the Minewater project in Heerlen.