An opportunity to decentralise energy production

Student project for master project 2 ‘Energy Transition West-Brabant (7WS25)’ part the master Urban Design and Planning at the Eindhoven University of Technology.

The goal was to create an energy strategy that would make western part of Noord-Brabant less dependent on fossil fuels for its domestic energy consumption. A test case was made for the municipal territory of Zundert (population: 21.000).

The landscape was analyzed on different characteristics and building on the municipal vision a typology was made of five different landscape types, each having their own unique qualities. For each landscape typology a small typical site of approx. 5 hectares was selected for which the implications would be shown.

Calculations were made to see how much energy the region is using right now and what how much land would be required to generate this in a green way. Different scenario’s with various different sources were considered, such as wind energy, bio-mass and thermal energy from greenhouses.

The impact of these different sources was shown, through visualizations and maps. Calculations for Zundert showed that the impact on the landscape would be minimal. Furthermore transition can be gradual and be done bottom up where farmers can take initiative into their own hands.

Location: Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Date: June 2015
Project type: Master project
Institute: Eindhoven University of Technology