Energy neutrality in a village hamlet

Description

In one of the hamlets of our village (Biest-Houtakker), inhabitants took up the plan to make their hamlet energy neutral. The municipality accepted that, funded it modestly and adopted it as an example to learn from and eventually to be repeated adapted to the situation.

A working group consisting of local citizens and supported by external experts is researching and scrutinizing alternatives on feasibility: technically and qua cost effectiveness.

The objective is a completely energy neutral hamlet on the basis of sustainable sources: wind energy, solar energy and (manure) fermentation. 

An additional objective is raising public awareness and citizens' participation: democratic renewal; right to challenge.

Our initiative, overviewed here, intends to acquire learning moments from comparable actions across EU rural areas.

Stakeholder beneficiary(ies)

Activities

Expected Outcomes

1. Finding out wether energy neutrality on the scale of a village hamlet (1.000 inhabitants) is feasible technically and qua cost effectiveness.
2. Experiencing from the intermediate steps and results.
3. involving citizens, creating and warranting awareness.
4. Creating learning moments.

Organisation/Company information