Vattenfall-NUON - District cooling expands in the Netherlands
One ward of a hospital southwest of Amsterdam has been connected to Vattenfall’s distant cooling network, operated by it’s Dutch company Nuon.
This means that for example air conditioning and server rooms in the clinic are now naturally cooled by the nearby lake Nieuwe Meer, reducing energy use by up to 50 per cent. The total delivery is 5 MW of cooling, equal to keeping 7500 refrigerators cold. Another building at the same hospital will be connected soon.The Nieuwe Meer is deep and the water in the lower layers of the lake is always cold, making it a large reservoir for cold water. Nuon (Vattenfall in the Netherlands) uses the cold from the lake and brings it to buildings in the Zuidas region. Vattenfall has one more district cooling plant in the Netherlands and operates district cooling in Germany, Denmark and Sweden as well. This method of cooling is a natural and inexhaustible source, and therefore very sustainable. It leads to a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions.