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By pushing the button Frederique Houben, Manager Energy of the Real Estate & Campus department and Management Engineer Dick Groeneveld turned off the first engines of the Thermal energy plant, on Monday, November 23^rd. This officially marking the start of the realization of the deNOx installation. This installation will reduce nitrogen emissions from the engines that keep running by more than half by the middle of 2021. An important step forward in making our energy supply more sustainable.

Due to the complexity of the project, Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� has chosen to enter into an integrated contract with emissions specialist Array Industries. Within the UAV-GC agreement, Array Industries is responsible for both the design and implementation of the deNOx installation. Teun Lam, Project Manager Energy Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��: "We have had an intensive design period with a lot of coordination between the operators of the Thermal energy plant and the strategic energy team. The operators have been extra challenged in order to continue to guarantee the university's energy supply. Not only because of the impact on their daily work as a result of the design of the deNOx installation, but also because of the corona measures. I am pleased that we have succeeded after all and that we can already start implementing the installation.”

No more natural gas

Together with the boiler houses, the Thermal energy plant still mainly provides the energy supply of the university However, the university wants to stop using natural gas as soon as possible. For this reason, she is making increasing use of heat and cold storage (CHP), a sustainable alternative to heating buildings. As a result, the demand for energy from the Thermal energy plant will become ever lower.

Frederique Houben: "The energy transition is a complex process of change in which the route to a future-proof and sustainable energy supply has not yet been mapped out. The first concrete steps have been taken with CHP and solar panels on roofs and carports and a feasibility study into wind. Many more steps will follow in the coming years. The focus should certainly also be on energy saving.”

The use of sustainable technologies such as CHP for heat supply will form the basis of the energy supply of Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� in the future. But that is not yet the case. In order to bridge the full transition to CHP, the university is focusing on making the gases produced by the Thermal energy plant as clean as possible.

Pictures are taken by René Hendriks.