Utrecht gives extra money to accelerate energy transition

The Province of Utrecht is making €19 million available to accelerate the energy transition. The money will go to a joint approach with municipalities for home insulation for residents with a narrow budget, as well as money for sustainable electricity generation and measures against grid congestion.

In the coalition agreement of the Province of Utrecht, it was agreed last year that the Province will invest 50 million in the coming years to accelerate the energy transition. On June 26, Provincial States passed a resolution on the use of the first 19 million. The college was also asked to start working out plans for the remaining funds.

Part of the money, 10 million euros, goes to making homes more sustainable. This will allow 8,000 homes with a poor energy label to be insulated more quickly, in cooperation with municipalities. This will also take advantage of subsidy opportunities from the state and Europe.

Loans to energy cooperatives

Another part of the money will be used as loans to local energy cooperatives to support them in developing renewable energy projects such as wind turbines and solar parks. In this way, residents are helped to generate their own energy through local energy cooperatives. The loan is repaid when a project actually comes to development. This can then be used to help other projects locally. In this way, the province stimulates local ownership of renewable energy.

Investments in energy hubs

Investments are also being made in the development of energy hubs. By exchanging and storing energy locally, companies can become more sustainable and grow without further burdening the congested power grid. They pool and share their connections to the power grid and add generation and storage to meet their electricity demand. This offers a solution to the problems on the Utrecht power grid, allowing sustainable developments to continue. Setting up such an energy hub is complicated and the province of Utrecht will now support it.

Future measures

In addition to these short-term initiatives, Provincial States have directed that another 30 million be used to develop plans to boost energy transition. Provincial States have asked that this money be used as much as possible for loans and guarantees. Every euro deployed by the Province must, of course, have maximum impact. The financial risks and innovative added value of this must be properly assessed in advance.