Articles
MASTERPLAN FOR COMBINED HEAT AND POWER IN GREENHOUSE HORTICULTURE IN THE NETHERLANDS
Since heat is one of the essential production-factors, no one would think not to control the heatproduction.
On the other hand, electricity-production took place in ever greater power plants, where lots of wasteheat was discarded.
Thinking about the rational use of energy, the idea that the optimum is to produce electricity where there is a heatdemand broke through.
By combining the production of heat and power the overall efficiency is much higher, that in the alternative case: heat from a boiler and electricity by large power plants.
The idea of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is very familiar in Dutch energypolicy.
In the early 80-ies only industries using process-steam installed CHP for their own needs.
Nowadays energydistributioncompanies, selling the heat to the heatdemander and using the electricity in their grid, are the main investors in CHP. Only, realisation always takes place on the individual level.
Until now it has never been a leading principle for a complete economic sector.
The greenhouse horticulture sector is the first sector in the Netherlands and likely in the whole world to offer its heatdemand to the utility-sector in order to produce electricity in the most effective way, by Combined Heat and Power.
For the first time in history a complete economic sector decided integral to give the electricty-distribution sector the right of first refusal for offering heat.
Recently the Landbouwschap, the Dutch Agricultural Board launched a Masterplan CHP in greenhouse horticulture.
This Masterplan is a major breakthrough.
It puts the traditional thinking aswel in horticulture as in utility thinking upside down:
No longer the control of the heatproduction is relevant; utilities can asure security of heatsupply as well as the can secure the supply of gas and electricity.
No longer the (long term) electricity demand decides what power stations to be build; it is the heat-demand that decides where and what size power staion will be build.
In this paper the Masterplan will be described: the backgrounds; the targets, the effects and the instruments.