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This is unique in Flanders In contrast to other heat distribution grids in Flanders, the heating for Suikerpark will not be generated in a central natural gas-fired furnace but will be fed by residual heat from the nearby PepsiCo oven.
Suikerpark Veurne where the residual heat from a potato chips oven keeps the neighborhood warm The homes and apartments in Veurne’s
— New life
heating will be entirely carbon-neutral, and
new neighborhood Suikerpark will soon
Sixteen years after the closure of its sugar
the plant’s carbon emissions will be drasti-
all be heated thanks to a giant heat
factory, Stad Veurne, WVI, and ION are
cally reduced once the heat distribution grid
distribution grid. The heat will come from
joining forces to revive the site. Thanks to
link is operational.
the residual heat of the potato chips
European and Flemish subsidies and the
oven of the nearby PepsiCo plant, which
collaboration with Fluvius and Noven, they
— Towards a sustainable future
is unique in Belgium. Fluvius is already
built a heat distribution grid to ensure that
Suikerpark is only the beginning because the
operating many heat distribution grids in
the housing units will not require their own
objective is to use the heat distribution grid
Flanders, but this will be the first one to
individual heating systems. The waste heat
to heat several neighborhoods in Veurne.
connect to industrial residual heat.
from the PepsiCo plant will be recovered and
And that’s not all. Solar panels on the
distributed through an underground piping
Suikertoren will provide renewable energy,
network.
and the water from the bathrooms will also be treated and reused. This means that res-
— Climate-neutral by 2050
idents will never need to worry about main-
This is a tremendous move in the right
taining gas boilers, and they will also be get-
direction because Europe wants all mem-
ting affordable and fair green energy right at
ber states to be climate-neutral by 2050. To
the same time.
achieve that objective, we will need to make maximum use of renewable heat. This heat distribution grid can be an example for many future projects because the neighborhood’s
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