Herreras Martinez, Sara
[Verfasser:in];
Harmsen, Robert
[Verfasser:in];
Menkveld, Marijke
[Verfasser:in];
Faaij, André
[Verfasser:in];
Kramer, Gert Jan
[Verfasser:in]
Beschreibung:
This paper depicts the approaches taken by twenty-eight Dutch municipalities for the ‘heat transition’, i.e. the effort to decarbonise heating in buildings. We held semi-structured interviews with public officials to assess their approach to data collection, technology choice, and neighbourhood prioritisation during the planning and (early) implementation stages. Municipalities deal with highly dynamic and experimental conditions with few international references to learn from. Calculating which are optimal solutions in which areas requires numerous data, in-house knowledge and societal support. The lack of municipal capacity and know-how to manage this process has led to a strong dependency on external expertise. Despite the national efforts to assist municipalities in this process, important regulatory and economic lock-in effects have hampered the local efforts to execute projects. For most local areas, the technological choice is unclear because cost-efficiency alone gives poor guidance, and some alternatives are not commercialised broadly or bring other uncertainties. District heating networks fed by different sources together with heat pumps are presently seen as most promising. Building insulation is perceived as a no-regret and widely supported measure that helps undercut the present uncertainties. Based on the main findings of the study, policy recommendations are drawn for national and local authorities