The Netherlands depends heavily on natural gas for heating homes, offices, greenhouses and factories. However, the stocks of natural gas are not infinite, and the current methods for mining natural gas result in environmental damage. Dutch Smart Thermal Grid is a study into alternative forms of geo-thermal heat. Through pumping up warm water from between two to four kilometres deep, a large proportion of our country could be provided with sustainable heating, with no damage to public space.

The committee greatly appreciates this project and Vermeulen’s approach. Dutch Smart Thermal Grid offers an exciting solution to a relevant problem. New scalable technology is employed here that could have a marked impact. It is also appealing that the project does not produce more, but actually less design so that the spatial implementation remains for a large part invisible.