You have lived here for years. You know your neighbours, greet each other in the street and feel at home in this neighbourhood. But your energy bills keep rising, and you find yourself wondering: how can we create an affordable and sustainable future together?
This story marks the starting point for exploring community heat in three Rotterdam neighbourhoods: Lage Land, Kralingseveer and Prinsenland-Zuid. It serves as the foundation for conversations with residents about their wishes, concerns and ambitions for a shared heat solution.
The heat transition involves many choices. Community heat initiatives and local energy communities are eager to take the lead, but they often face complex questions. Which heating solution is the best fit for the neighbourhood? Is a district heating network the right option, or would another solution be more suitable? And what does this mean for home renovations and collaboration between residents?
Within the European RenoVisor project, we are developing a digital tool to support energy communities in making these decisions. To ensure that this tool reflects real-life practice, we involve community initiatives from the very beginning. That is why the three Rotterdam neighbourhood initiatives have been selected as early-stage Energy Community pilots. Their experiences, questions and insights are directly incorporated into the development of the tool, ensuring that it meets the needs of energy communities.
The three neighbourhood initiatives emerged following a series of information meetings on community heat. Residents who wanted to continue exploring the topic joined forces in working groups. Over the coming months, they will develop a start-up document outlining their ambitions, potential heat sources and next steps. Ultimately, they will decide for themselves how they want to develop their initiative.
These community stories play an important role in this process. They help reveal the questions, considerations and motivations that matter most to residents, providing valuable input for the development of the RenoVisor tool. By involving residents from the very beginning, we are not only strengthening local initiatives, but also creating a digital solution that is firmly rooted in real-world practice.
Imagine your neighbourhood having control over its own heat. Not because someone else decided for you, but because you explored the options together and made the decision yourselves.
Through these three neighbourhood initiatives, Energie van Rotterdam and Alex Energiek are taking an important step within RenoVisor. By working alongside residents from the very beginning, we are developing a tool that better supports energy communities in making the decisions required for the heat transition. In doing so, Rotterdam's neighbourhoods are contributing not only to their own sustainable future, but also to knowledge and solutions that can support energy communities across Europe.
