Abstract Summary
By the year 2040, Amsterdam wants to be independent from natural gas, and by 2050 the entire city needs to be carbon neutral. For the 17th-century inner city of Amsterdam, the municipality aims for a 70% reduction in natural gas and to use biogas, hydrogen and hybrid solutions. The district is now mainly served by natural gas boilers and an extensive energy renovation is difficult due the lack of space and the great share of listed buildings. Disconnecting the existing building stock from natural gas requires a switch to alternative energy-efficient sources, making optimal use of heat pumps and sustainable heating solutions available locally. Following the New Stepped Strategy and using the case of Amsterdam city centre, the research proposes an integrated planning approach for the heat transition of historical districts based on Geographic Information System (GIS), bottom-up energy modelling and parametric tools. The objective to apply such an approach is to balance heritage conservation and the sustainable heat transition goals by joining expertise in architecture and energy planning. The first step of the approach is the reduction of the energy demand. Based on Grasshopper and Ladybug Tools, a multi-criteria model was to developed to iterate retrofitting scenarios and identify minimum requirements to make archetype buildings suitable for lower temperature heating. Best-balanced retrofitting scenarios were subsequently integrated within the broader urban context using GIS tools, considering spatial opportunities for reusing energy waste streams, and producing energy from local, low temperature sources such as thermal energy from canal water. In the end, optimal energy balance along with the strategic integration of thermal storage systems was assessed and used as input for the configuration of local heat (and cold) grids. The results of the research present how the applied approach can effectively guide the transition to sustainable heating in historical urban districts.
