Utilities
Utilities
The availability of industrial utilities and facilities, such as water, steam, green and standard electricity, technical gases, air, data and residual substances, is becoming increasingly important as a location factor.
Groningen Seaports recognised this early on and has been investing in public utilities since 2005. As a result, companies can operate more sustainably and cheaply and are able to focus on their core business. In recent years the main focus has been on green raw materials, product processing and CO2 reduction (by 49%). These are topics that fit perfectly with Groningen Seaports’ port vision 2030.
Reducing CO2 emissions calls for making connections (cables and pipelines), the development of other production methods and more use of biomass. Other forms of cooperation and more use of orange-green electricity (sun and wind, generated in the region) will also have to be considered.
NorthGrid
NorthGrid sets out to promote cooperation in the development of underground infrastructure in the Northern Netherlands. A large number of new underground connections will be laid here in the future. They could be used to transport heat and (green) hydrogen to supply homes with energy and, for example, for (circular) industrial water or CO2 to make industry more sustainable.
The building of this infrastructure is currently not being coordinated, so each party planning to lay a cable or pipeline has to arrange everything themselves. NorthGrid plans to take measures to see that the process leading to the incorporation of new underground connections is coordinated in advance with all stakeholders. We aim to cluster cables and pipelines.
Underground transport is the future
The Netherlands has more than 18,000 kilometres of pipelines to transport hazardous substances (natural gas, oil products and chemicals) and more than 100,000 kilometres of pipelines for the transport of water and drinking water. This pipeline network is vital to the safe transport of products needed in our day-to-day lives, our energy supply, and to keeping industry running.
Pipeline transport is a safe, silent and environmentally friendly way to transport large volumes of products with minimal inconvenience to the surrounding area during the usage phase.