IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i2p347-d477708.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards Fossil Free Cities—A Supermarket, Greenhouse & Dwelling Integrated Energy System as an Alternative to District Heating: Amsterdam Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Nick ten Caat

    (Department of Architectural Engineering & Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, 2628 BL Delft, The Netherlands)

  • Luuk Graamans

    (Greenhouse Horticulture, Wageningen University & Research, 6700 AP Wageningen, The Netherlands)

  • Martin Tenpierik

    (Department of Architectural Engineering & Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, 2628 BL Delft, The Netherlands)

  • Andy van den Dobbelsteen

    (Department of Architectural Engineering & Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, 2628 BL Delft, The Netherlands)

Abstract

The municipality of Amsterdam has set stringent carbon emission reduction targets: 55% by 2030 and 95% by 2050 for the entire metropolitan area. One of the key strategies to achieve these goals entails a disconnection of all households from the natural gas supply by 2040 and connecting them to the existing city-wide heat grid. This paper aims to demonstrate the value of considering local energy potentials at the city block level by exploring the potential of a rooftop greenhouse solar collector as a renewable alternative to centralized district heating. An existing supermarket and an ATES component complete this local energy synergy. The thermal energy balance of the three urban functions were determined and integrated into hourly energy profiles to locate and quantify the simultaneous and mismatched discrepancies between energy excess and demand. The excess thermal energy extracted from one 850 m 2 greenhouse can sustain up to 47 dwellings, provided it is kept under specific interior climate set points. Carbon accounting was applied to evaluate the system performance of the business-as-usual situation, the district heating option and the local system. The avoided emissions due to the substitution of natural gas by solar thermal energy do not outweigh the additional emissions consequential to the fossil-based electricity consumption of the greenhouse’s crop growing lights, but when the daily photoperiod is reduced from 16 h to 12 h, the system performs equally to the business-as-usual situation. Deactivating growth lighting completely does make this local energy solution carbon competitive with district heating. This study points out that rooftop greenhouses applied as solar collectors can be a suitable alternative energy solution to conventional district heating, but the absence of growing lights will lead to diminished agricultural yields.

Suggested Citation

  • Nick ten Caat & Luuk Graamans & Martin Tenpierik & Andy van den Dobbelsteen, 2021. "Towards Fossil Free Cities—A Supermarket, Greenhouse & Dwelling Integrated Energy System as an Alternative to District Heating: Amsterdam Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-33, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:2:p:347-:d:477708
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/2/347/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/2/347/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andy Van den Dobbelsteen & Craig Lee Martin & Greg Keeffe & Riccardo Maria Pulselli & Han Vandevyvere, 2018. "From Problems to Potentials—The Urban Energy Transition of Gruž, Dubrovnik," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-18, April.
    2. Graamans, Luuk & van den Dobbelsteen, Andy & Meinen, Esther & Stanghellini, Cecilia, 2017. "Plant factories; crop transpiration and energy balance," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 138-147.
    3. Fleuchaus, Paul & Godschalk, Bas & Stober, Ingrid & Blum, Philipp, 2018. "Worldwide application of aquifer thermal energy storage – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 861-876.
    4. Solomon, Barry D. & Krishna, Karthik, 2011. "The coming sustainable energy transition: History, strategies, and outlook," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 7422-7431.
    5. Meggers, Forrest & Ritter, Volker & Goffin, Philippe & Baetschmann, Marc & Leibundgut, Hansjürg, 2012. "Low exergy building systems implementation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 48-55.
    6. Graamans, Luuk & Baeza, Esteban & van den Dobbelsteen, Andy & Tsafaras, Ilias & Stanghellini, Cecilia, 2018. "Plant factories versus greenhouses: Comparison of resource use efficiency," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 31-43.
    7. Majcen, D. & Itard, L.C.M. & Visscher, H., 2013. "Theoretical vs. actual energy consumption of labelled dwellings in the Netherlands: Discrepancies and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 125-136.
    8. Sommer, Wijbrand & Valstar, Johan & Leusbrock, Ingo & Grotenhuis, Tim & Rijnaarts, Huub, 2015. "Optimization and spatial pattern of large-scale aquifer thermal energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 322-337.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Graamans, Luuk & Tenpierik, Martin & van den Dobbelsteen, Andy & Stanghellini, Cecilia, 2020. "Plant factories: Reducing energy demand at high internal heat loads through façade design," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    2. Barkat Rabbi & Zhong-Hua Chen & Subbu Sethuvenkatraman, 2019. "Protected Cropping in Warm Climates: A Review of Humidity Control and Cooling Methods," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-24, July.
    3. Beernink, Stijn & Bloemendal, Martin & Kleinlugtenbelt, Rob & Hartog, Niels, 2022. "Maximizing the use of aquifer thermal energy storage systems in urban areas: effects on individual system primary energy use and overall GHG emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    4. Graamans, Luuk & Baeza, Esteban & van den Dobbelsteen, Andy & Tsafaras, Ilias & Stanghellini, Cecilia, 2018. "Plant factories versus greenhouses: Comparison of resource use efficiency," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 31-43.
    5. Dafni Despoina Avgoustaki & George Xydis, 2020. "Plant factories in the water-food-energy Nexus era: a systematic bibliographical review," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(2), pages 253-268, April.
    6. Li, Shuang & Wang, Gaosheng & Zhou, Mengmeng & Song, Xianzhi & Shi, Yu & Yi, Junlin & Zhao, Jialin & Zhou, Yifan, 2024. "Thermal performance of an aquifer thermal energy storage system: Insights from novel multilateral wells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    7. Guelpa, Elisa & Verda, Vittorio, 2019. "Thermal energy storage in district heating and cooling systems: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Fleuchaus, Paul & Schüppler, Simon & Godschalk, Bas & Bakema, Guido & Blum, Philipp, 2020. "Performance analysis of Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1536-1548.
    9. Marco Hernandez Velasco, 2021. "Enabling Year-round Cultivation in the Nordics-Agrivoltaics and Adaptive LED Lighting Control of Daily Light Integral," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-31, December.
    10. Rostampour, Vahab & Jaxa-Rozen, Marc & Bloemendal, Martin & Kwakkel, Jan & Keviczky, Tamás, 2019. "Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) smart grids: Large-scale seasonal energy storage as a distributed energy management solution," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 624-639.
    11. Daniilidis, Alexandros & Mindel, Julian E. & De Oliveira Filho, Fleury & Guglielmetti, Luca, 2022. "Techno-economic assessment and operational CO2 emissions of High-Temperature Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (HT-ATES) using demand-driven and subsurface-constrained dimensioning," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    12. Rohan Best & Paul J. Burke, 2020. "Energy mix persistence and the effect of carbon pricing," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(3), pages 555-574, July.
    13. Luigi Romano & Marcello Ruberti, 2019. "Focus on the Performances of the Most Advanced Italian Thermoelectric Power Plants," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(5), pages 264-273.
    14. David Gattie & Michael Hewitt, 2023. "National Security as a Value-Added Proposition for Advanced Nuclear Reactors: A U.S. Focus," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-26, August.
    15. Rossano Albatici & Alessia Gadotti & Christian Baldessari & Michela Chiogna, 2016. "A Decision Making Tool for a Comprehensive Evaluation of Building Retrofitting Actions at the Regional Scale," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-17, September.
    16. Yorifuji, Ryota & Obara, Shin'ya, 2022. "Economic design of artificial light plant factories based on the energy conversion efficiency of biomass," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    17. Solène Goy & François Maréchal & Donal Finn, 2020. "Data for Urban Scale Building Energy Modelling: Assessing Impacts and Overcoming Availability Challenges," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-23, August.
    18. Michael Martin & Elvira Molin, 2019. "Environmental Assessment of an Urban Vertical Hydroponic Farming System in Sweden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-14, July.
    19. Barth, Florian & Schüppler, Simon & Menberg, Kathrin & Blum, Philipp, 2023. "Estimating cooling capacities from aerial images using convolutional neural networks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    20. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Martiskainen, Mari & Hook, Andrew & Baker, Lucy, 2020. "Beyond cost and carbon: The multidimensional co-benefits of low carbon transitions in Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:2:p:347-:d:477708. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.