Be.SHARE will test a local, low-temperature Carbon Neutral Heating and Cooling Network for the Brussels North District – a dense urban neighbourhood characterised by a mix of high-rise offices and fragile neighbourhoods with social housing. The network will harvest renewable energy under the public domain – geothermal units beneath parks and roads, and heat recovery from wastewater (riothermal technology) – and directly exchange energy between office and residential users with very different heating and cooling needs. A Public-Private-Community governance model ensures collaboration between public and private actors, academics and grassroots organisations.
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The Brussels Northern Quarter, an energetically dense district, is characterised by an important contrast between glass high-rise towers with offices and surrounding fragile neighbourhoods with an important part of social housing (average income below the region's 10th percentile and 54% of social households vs. an average of 7% across the Brussels Capital Region).
Currently, most of the buildings use fossil fuel (natural gas) for heating, contributing to the low air quality of the area and significant carbon emissions. They also share a very limited access to the ground preventing them from benefitting from geothermal or other forms of renewable energy on their own plot.
The Be.SHARE project opens the opportunity to bring into balance the very different needs of business and residential end users in the area through a Carbon Neutral district Heating and Cooling Network (CNHCN). The network will harvest renewable energy under public domain and share these resources between large-scale real estate actors and local communities of low-income households in a place-based approach. An innovative Public-Private-Community governance (PPC) model will oversee matters of ownership, role and rights, and engage citizens.
The Be.SHARE project is part of the Brussels-Capital Region’s decarbonisation strategy, using advanced technologies that are still very rare in Europe.
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The European Urban Initiative is an essential tool of the urban dimension of Cohesion Policy for the 2021-2027 programming period. The initiative established by the European Union supports cities of all sizes, to build their capacity and knowledge, to support innovation and develop transferable and scalable innovative solutions to urban challenges of EU relevance.
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