The zero emission power plant (ZEPP) is an innovative concept for oxyfuel combustion of 170 MWth (50MWe) power plant in Drachten/Akkrum. It is expected a capture rate of 250,000 ton CO2 annualy, with transport and storage into gas fields for EGR, resulting in a yield of natural gas of about 40 million cubic metres.

Objectives and target audience

A reduction of approximately 1 Megaton CO2-emission can be achieved over a period of four years. Furthermore, the ZEPP plant will not emit any NOx, SO2 or ‘fine dust’, due to the special combustion process using pure oxygen.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The ZEPP in Drachten is initiated by the Dutch company SEQ Nederland B.V. Financial support is given by ONS energy, an electricity distribution company, local governments and by Energy Valley, a public private foundation with local, national and European members, which stimulates the economy of the North of the Netherlands through the financing of energy activities.
The zero emission power plant (ZEPP) project involves the collaboration of SEQ Nederland BV, ENECO Milieu BV, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and the Stichting Energy Valley initiative and will cost €60 million of which €10 million is subsidy from Ministry of Finance.

Process

Applying ESTEEM
The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has applied and tested the ESTEEM tool in the ZEPP project. ECN executed the six steps of the tool together with the project manager, Wouter van de Waal during 2007.

Step 1:  Project past & present
Based on two interviews with Mr Van de Waal, ECN wrote the narrative of the project. A story-like text on the past and current situation of the ZEPP starting with the first ideas of Van de Waal to store CO2  under ground in 1999 until the concrete plans of the ZEPP as they are in 2007. Based on the narrative, the table with defining moments of the project  was compiled: a chronological overview of moments in the past that have influenced the project in a major way, for example the introduction of project partners, the concession to use the gas field, financial support decisions, etc. ECN also analysed the context of the project in the barriers and opportunities tables in which potential opportunities and barriers of the project are shortly described. Together with Van de Waal ECN finally present situation: stakeholder map ZEPP compiled an overview of all the stakeholders and their past, current and possible future role in the actors table.

Step 2:  Vision building
In the second step of the ESTEEM process ECN investigated the future visions for the project in 2020 of project manager Van de Waal and seven stakeholders. These stakeholders were selected using the criteria in the ESTEEM manual and included stakeholders such as local and national government (municipality, province, ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Environmental affairs), technology developers (Siemens), NGOs (Friesche Milieufederatie) and an interest group for local industries. Based on face-to-face interviews ECN wrote the visions in the format of a future newspaper article (20     September 2020) with a title summarising the vision. Also a network map was designed for each vision, visualising the relations between stakeholders in the future.

Step 3:  Vision confrontation
In the third step ECN analysed and compared the visions drafted in the previous step and derived potential comparison. In total thirteen identified (for example whether or not to have a cooling tower, role of local versus national government, etc) as well as seven opportunities (for example joined heat supply with a local biomass plant and making use of locally available services and industries) which had not been mentioned by the project manager before.

Step 4:  Identifying solutions
For each controversy and opportunity identified in the previous step Mr Van de Waal and ECN discussed one or more strategies to overcome the controversies and make use of the opportunities.
These strategies were divided into four categories: adjustments of the installation design or (change of) location, gaining extra knowledge through articulating new research questions, financial incentives and others. In total Mr Van de Waal and ECN identified 29 new strategies for the project.

Step 5:  Stakeholder workshop
ECN grouped the controversies and opportunities identified in step 3 of the ESTEEM process in five themes which were discussed at a stakeholder workshop. ECN organised this workshop in November 2007. The location was provided by one of the neighbouring companies at the industrial area where the ZEPP is planned. The goal of this workshop was twofold:
1.    Identifying and debating strategies, that are desirable from a societal point of view, in interaction with SEQ and relevant stakeholders.
2.    Testing the fifth step of ESTEEM to gain experience and refine it.

Step 6:  Planning for action
In the last step of ESTEEM, ECN has categorized all strategies formulated in the stakeholder workshop into activities and actions to be taken on the short time and do not require extensive cooperation activities, activities that do require extensive collaboration with third parties and actions focusing on the long time and/or monitoring.
These actions are further elaborated into sub-actions and concrete recommendations for the project manager by ECN in three different plans for action:

• A short term action plan, including for example adaptations to plant design proposed by stakeholders or specific information supply to local residents.
• Collaboration plan, including for example collaboration with the city council for improving the green image of Drachten by advertising the ZEPP and also advertising residual heat to potential users.
• Long term action plan, including for example strategies for taking part in national and international debate on the relation between Carbon Capture & Storage technologies and renewable energy.

In these plans the project manager was provided with details about what steps the project
manager needs to take from a societal perspective with the aim of increasing societal acceptance of the ZEPP in Drachten.

Results

At full capacity the plant can generate sufficient climate neutral power for approximately 150,000 households, which corresponds to about 50% of all Frisian households. A local (climate neutral) heat grid with a capacity of around 15 MW will also form part of the project.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges?

At an early stage client, developer, utility and housing association co-operated closely in order to realise a new residential area with high standards on architecture, sustainability, health and comfort.  All dwellings have an energy reduction of at least 25%.  The project demonstrates a great variety of collective and individual energy saving systems.  The water and green design brings good opportunities for natural flora and fauna.

Objectives and target audience

The target is to reduce energy consumption by 25 – 40% through a combination of eight small gas-fired combined heat-and-power plants, heat pumps connected to the ground water, solar collectors and high levels of insulation.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

City of Rotterdam

Process

In 1997 the City of Rotterdam used to give a premium of €240 for each dwelling that was built according to certain conditions.  In 1998 this list was replaced by a convenant.
Rotterdam and surrounding municipalities work together with building partners in a Sustainable Building convenant on spatial planning, new building and renovation.  Parties also speak on experiments, dissemination of knowledge and communication. In the region of Rotterdam already more than 125 parties signed this convenant.
In Nieuw Terbregge extra attention has been paid to the realisation of the convenant by instruction and education of building parties by the sustainable building consultant.
Being a demonstration project on sustainable building, several sustainable features can be
recognised in the plan.  First of all attention has been paid to energy saving and use of sustainable energy.  All dwellings in Nieuw Terbregge have very high insulation in order to reduce energy demand.
The south-orientation of most window openings provides passive solar energy.  Other expressions of sustainable urban planning are the special water system in Nieuw Terbregge and measures to enlarge accessibility for bicycles.
Concerning other aspects of sustainable building environmentally sound building materials and water saving devices have been chosen.  Examples are use of tropical hardwood with FSC quality mark, elimination of copper, zinc and led for gutters, elimination of polyurethane products and avoiding unnecessary use of material.

Results

Energy-saving demonstration in Nieuw Terbregge every part has a different combination of
collective and individual heat and power production:-

1. 41 dwellings have individual solar collector for DHW and heating;
2. 32 optimised with passive solar energy use through sun houses and solar collectors;
3. 38 have CHP, heat pump and solar collectors;
4. 150 with CHP, partly with solar collectors;
5. 170 have solar collectors for DHW;

Carbon emissions are up to 55 per cent lower than new housing produced in 1996.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

When offering a building plan to the local authorities for a building permit, one is obliged to present a calculation of the Energy Performance Standard (EP) of the building.
The Energy Performance Standard measures the energy efficiency of a building.  By governmental regulation this Energy Performance Standard may not exceed a certain fixed value.  In New Terbregge the EP Standard was below the national regulations at that moment.

The Iguana project consists of eight show homes with one company house and presentation space.
The original initiative came from Hendrik Gommer and Elsa Visser. When looking for an environmentally-friendly house in 1997 they kept drawing a blank. ‘Eco-friendly building’ did not mean much more than putting in a bit more insulation and a water-saving showerhead.
Iguana homes, like the iguana, look to the sun for their energy.

Objectives and target audience

The Iguana project demonstrates affordable bio-ecological houses constructed with a fully-environmental approach.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The total cost of the work was € 2,100,000 (including photovoltaic panels) contribution with LIFE amounted to € 91,497.
The beneficiary is: De Groene Leguaan VOF (The Green Iguana), Middelweg 51, 8715 EV Stavoren, Netherlands

Process

There is less environmental pollution from the use of renewable and/or recycled materials, while shape is important as well (e.g. orientation to the sun).
A balance was sought by using solutions both cheaper and more expensive than traditional building methods. The result was a medium-budget home. Cheaper than normal was the wooden frame construction and the use of EPDM as the roofing material and larch as the facade coping. More expensive was, in particular, the use of cellulose, loam insulating walls and a solar greenhouse.
This mode of construction, with ‘breathing’ walls and vapour control/thermal buffer materials, can be sources of supply that are being used up.
Consumers, building contractors, project developers and authorities are insufficiently convinced of the feasibility and the advantages of bio-ecological houses. The aim of the Iguana project is to publicise the advantages of bio-ecological construction.

Results

The Iguana project has received considerable attention in the media. Just about every trade journal has carried an article on it. Three films have been made, including one by the EC. The Iguana houses have above all been a source of inspiration.
But not many have been built so far. The technical solution did not turn out to be the main problem in the short term. Creating a bio-ecological house is a complex business, too complex to be solved with a single project. The client, the architect, the estate agent, the provincial council, the town council, the project developer, the contractor, the subcontractor and the building worker all have to be advised and convinced. The construction of a bio-ecological house demands a great deal of know-how and the parties involved do not have enough. Accumulating know-how takes time and money and project developers want to invest too little. Every time a new contractor is brought in the same mistakes are made.
Lessons are learned only by practical experience.
Many model houses will therefore have to be built before really sustainable building becomes the norm.
Nevertheless, the Iguana project can be called a success. This has helped and is helping to shake up the building world.
The Iguana project is still being studied (SBR, SEV, TNO-hout, NOVEM) and reports on the Green Iguana still appear very regularly in newspapers and/or trade journals. An Internet publication (www.leguaan.nl) and a subsequent article have ensured extra attention for sustainable building in Friesland.
The typical shape of the house points to the need to orient new houses to the sun. Building solar-oriented houses led to as many as 16 different PV systems being installed on Iguana houses, making the Iguana project a testing area for PV systems in existing structures. So much experience has been gathered that the Green Iguana can now be said to be an authority on photovoltaics in existing buildings. This in turn has led to the involvement of the MegaPV design office in the Iguana project, which in the coming years is going to carry out a practical experiment on the ‘large-scale introduction of PV’ in cooperation with Novem, Essent and the city councils of Leeuwaarden, Groningen and Assen (www.megapv.nl/mega). One of the aims is to bring in environmentally-neutral construction in the wake of the introduction of PV.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

In the Netherlands and even in other parts of Europe the Green Iguana has more or less grown to become a symbol of environmentally-neutral construction. It will therefore focus attention for years on the need for environmentally-neutral construction. Thanks to the contributions of LIFE, IPR, Novem, Friesland Province and SEV it will now be able to stand on its own two feet and develop new initiatives.

By 2015, all new construction of houses, offices and businesses in the city of Amsterdam will be climate neutral.

Objectives and target audience

This project aims to reduce energy usage in households, businesses and offices. The main objective is to achieve that four out of ten newly built houses will be climate neutral by 2010 and this standard will apply to all new houses built within the municipality borders by 2015.
The estimated amount of CO2 that can be saved due to Climate neutral new construction is 30Kton per year.
This new standard will also change the way the building sector looks at the building procurement process. New criteria will be used to select parties and award projects.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The main partners involved in this project are the Municipality of Amsterdam and the construction companies.

Process

After a consultation to a large group of parties, the City Council set the ambition to promote climate neutral construction of houses, offices and businesses. As a result, the City Council has developed and is now enforcing a new standard for climate neutral construction which affects to the entire process of land allocation, development and construction of new houses, offices and businesses.
Normally, the selection is based on the highest price offered for a certain plot. In this case, the different plots are offered for a fixed price and the parties are selected on criteria such as energy savings and sustainability. Such measures may include a district heating grid, district cold grid, thermal storage and sustainable energy generation. In addition, during the design of buildings it is important to make beneficial choices regarding the orientation of houses, insulation, sustainable energy and installations.
This process requires great deal, not only from the municipal spatial planning office and the municipal development corporation, but also from developers, contractors and subcontractors.

Results

Even though this initiative is very new, it has already had an impact on the development of certain projects in different districts of Amsterdam. For example:
At the Zuidas location, ABN-Amro, together with other parties, has developed the Dutch Green Building Council. This concept makes it possible to achieve a better sustainability score than is prescribed in the legislation.
A group of eight market parties is working on a proposal to make the Buiksloterham development district as climate neutral as possible. In this context, the Noordwaarts Administrative Consultation Committee has decided that the project will be awarded to the developer with the most sustainable plan, and not necessarily to the developer with the lowest price. To compare the plans with each other, a ‘sustainability meter’ is being used. The first experience with this approach is being acquired in the Buiksloterham. The intention is for many more projects in Amsterdam Noord and other parts of the city to start using this method.
Finally, in the Spaarndammerbuurt, the De Key housing association is starting to build climate-neutral houses and is bringing existing houses to that level during renovation.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

All parties are working together in order to find joint solutions for the problems they encounter on the path to climate-neutral construction. In order to facilitate this work, a leading Group for New Construction will be established later this year.

With the help of computers and the use of public networks like Internet, we are nowadays capable of working and learning from everywhere with a telephone and cable connection.  In Amsterdam, there are a lot of people that work in professions which are suitable for telework.

Objectives and target audience

The main objective of TeleDock initiative is to provide a network of offices/telecentres for local teleworkers with access to high-quality equipment, professional software and a fast internet connection within a short distance from their homes.
By offering an alternative to teleworkers who cannot or do not wish to work from home for various reasons, TeleDoking aims to contribute to reduce the amount of kilometres driven from and to work, together with the damage to the environment and the annoyance of the traffic jams.

The target group for the telework centre are employees, free-lances, starters and entrepreneurs. At the same time, it can also be targeted to students, unemployed or NGOs who want to follow or organise educational programmes.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

TeleDock is an initiative of Aby-Teleconsulting in cooperation with the Woningbedrijf Amsterdam (property company) and the Stichting Website Netwerk.

Process

Every local teleworker travels to the office (TeleDock) which is more accessible to him/her. These telecentres offer office services for teleworkers who do not want to or cannot work at home, but do not want to make long commuting trips.

This teledock is a multifunctional centre that offers people the opportunity to use the most modern technology for information and communication (high quality computers, professional software, fast internet connection, fax and telephone). People can also rent a workplace (including meeting rooms), participate in courses offered by the centre, contribute to multimedia experiments, use the information services of Teledock and participated in cultural and recreative events.

Results

Teledock offers a pleasant space and excellent services to teleworkers who look for a place to work in their own neighbourhood in Amsterdam.
In addition, it contributes to increase the liveability of the city and helps to reduce traffic congestion.
Besides educational centres and NGOs can rent a part of the telecentre for training courses contributing the educational aspect of the project and also strengthening social cohesion in the neighbourhood by reducing the gap between the people who have access to modern technology and people who are excluded from it.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The possibility to exploit benefits coming from tele-work solutions relies on affordable, ubiquitous, high speed internet access including affordable, user-friendly, energy efficient terminals (PC, Mobile, TV or other), widespread basic IT skills.

The ICT industry has grown into one of the most energy-intensive sectors in the Netherlands and it is expected to grow in size and energy consumption in the years to come. Together with the ICT-sector, the Climate Agency of the City of Amsterdam has initiated the Green-IT Initiative to reduce energy use in the ICT-sector.

Objectives and target audience

The objective of the Green-IT Initiative is to structurally reduce energy use in the IT-sector through knowledge exchange (a podium for pioneers and energy-experts) and by taking real measures which are supported by the sector itself.
The City of Amsterdam itself has set the target of achieving 40% CO2 reduction from the levels of 1990 by 2025. This task can only be achieved if all concerned are willing to take far-reaching measures. The ICT industry has become a major energy user in the City of Amsterdam; therefore, setting energy efficiency in this growing sector is a priority for the Municipality.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The city of Amsterdam is structurally supporting the Green-IT initiative (which is a cooperation between city and the IT partners) with a budget that covers the costs of a project leader, hiring expert knowledge where needed and the organisation of meetings.

This initiative is being developed by the Climate Agency of the City of Amsterdam. The main research study was conducted by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (can be found at: http://www.ecn.nl/docs/library/report/2008/e08035.pdf). The whole process also involves the IT Companies in Amsterdam and the main experts in the sector.

Process

The Municipality and ICT businesses from Greater Amsterdam are jointly discussing the theme of ICT and energy use. A first meeting on the subject Green Datacenters was attended by representatives of 35 organisations, including data centres, ICT multinationals, universities and research institutes, the national government and the sector association. In a series of follow up meetings various programme lines were worked out in greater detail. Within the private sector there are “early adapters” who are already doing a lot more than what the law requires on their own initiatives.  Therefore, the Green IT Project aims to build on those good examples in order to exchange knowledge and experience among early adapters and the rest of the industry and experts.
The Climate office facilitates this process by paying organisational costs, commissioning external advisors and providing a project manager who’s responsible for personal contact with the sector. More meetings will be organised in the near future.

Results

The Climate office has created a network for the ICT sector to joint forces in the challenge to reduce CO2 emissions. With some companies specific agreements on CO2 emission reduction have been made.
In addition, the IT business will gain knowledge on best practice technologies which can lead to significant energy conservation, CO2-reduction, and lower energy costs while at the same time fulfil their social responsibility. Furthermore, the climate goals of the Municipality of Amsterdam, which are part of the national and global initiatives, will benefit from lower CO2-emissions in this economic sub-sector.
Finally, together with Cisco, Seoul and San Francisco, Amsterdam has co-founded the Connected Urban Development (CUD). CUD is a global initiative where innovative ICT applications are used as a tool for fighting climate change and reduce energy usage. The key result will be that the energy use of the ICT-sector will be significantly reduced.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The programme has just started. However, one of the strengths so far is the formation of a strong network of ICT companies that are aware of their duty to contribute to the reduction of their energy usage and CO2 emission. The programme works on the basis of voluntary participation. Commitment of the most important IT companies is the most critical asset when starting a co-operation programme. Therefore a lot of time has been invested in selection of companies and high level representatives, building an agenda that is supported by the participants, and investing time on the emergence of a Amsterdam Green-IT community.
Sharing knowledge on specific topics helps create awareness of the great potentials to realize energy savings and reduce CO2 emissions.

In the last few years the energy costs have risen rapidly. Besides that, the realization about the urgency of reducing CO2-emissions has been growing simultaneously. Both facts are an important reason to deliberately handle with the use of energy, both in homes and outside. For homeowners the possibility for offering advise for saving energy has been available for a longer period, but for social housing the market is wide open and there is a lot to win in saving energy and saving money from that for social households.

Objectives and target audience

The overall objective of the project is to reduce energy use in 10.000 households who live in social housing. The project aims at a threefold impact on society:

• Reduction of CO2;
• Helping social housing households saving money on their energy-bill;
• Giving young unemployed people a chance on the job-market with education and good guidance.

The beneficiaries are the young unemployed who receive an education and have a job for at least a year and also the social households who save money by saving energy

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The main parties involved are: City of Amsterdam, Energy company NUON, Housing corporation Far-West and Ymere. The whole project is sponsored by Philips.

Process

The Step2Save pilot programme is developed in Amsterdam. Young unemployed citizens selected by the Work & Income Department- spend a year visiting 10,000 social housing households to give free energy advice and install energy-saving devices.
Before that, the young unemployed are trained through a programme called Step2Work. This is open for jobless people from 18 to 30. Those who enter the programme receive training and working experience during 1 year.
This training is done by the energy company NUON. After the training, they are energy-advisers and their work consists on visiting social housing households in one year.

Results

During the pilot phase, there were ten energy advisors who were ringing the doorbell and handed out the energy box and gave advice.
In 2007, 106 participants signed up for the NUON Step2Work programme. So far Step2save has given nearly 6000 advices and energyboxes which means that all these people can now start saving energy and money.
In terms of energy use, it has been proved that with the advise and the box, each household is able to reduce 200kg of CO2, which means around €70,- a year on their energy bill (on average 5%).
Due to the big success, the municipality is now working on a new cooperation (maybe with more partners) in order to continue Step2save after September 2008.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The approach followed, to ring the doorbell and visit each house, has proved to be very successful. Previous attempts where citizens had to register before receiving the visit did not work as well as Step2save.
Another success factor has been the cooperation between the different parties. Not only human resources but financial as well. The investment of the sponsor has also benefited a lot.