Heat transition stalls: South Holland calls for action

South Holland’s warning that the heat transition risks grinding to a halt is not an isolated case. In Utrecht, a planned switch to a district heating network has been cancelled; in Friesland, a community initiative has been permanently abandoned; and in Amsterdam, the parties behind a publicly owned heating company are calling for better financial conditions. The National Programme for the Local Heat Transition (NPLW) also warned on October 7 that implementation risks stalling nationwide.

Officials from South Holland signed a manifesto at the Heat Congress on October 8 calling for faster development of collective heating systems. According to the accompanying press release, several projects are ready for an investment decision, but the conditions needed to move forward are still missing.

According to provincial executive member Arno Bonte, the regions of Holland Rijnland, Delft, Gorinchem, Oostland and Drechtsteden could decide on major heating projects within a year. Together, their ambition covers around one million households, almost 30 million square metres of commercial premises, and 4,000 hectares of greenhouse horticulture.

“If those conditions are not met, promising heating projects will grind to a halt,” Bonte says, referring to the conditions the national government needs to put in place. The officials are calling for financial support for projects that can start quickly, investment in regional interconnecting and backbone pipelines, and faster progress in the transition from privately owned to publicly owned heating companies.

Utrecht: phasing out natural gas before 2030 is no longer feasible

What South Holland fears has already happened in Utrecht. In April 2024, the municipality of Utrecht, Eneco and housing associations concluded that connecting Overvecht-Noord to a district heating network would be too expensive. Their partnership was terminated.

The municipality had aimed to offer residents a free switch and a discount on their energy bills. That proved unfeasible. According to the municipality’s current information, the original goal of making the neighbourhood natural gas-free before 2030 will also no longer be met. Utrecht is working on a new plan for the entire neighbourhood.

Friesland: financial risks derail community initiative

In Heeg, Friesland, the cooperative heating project Warm Heeg was permanently abandoned this summer. The plan involved extracting heat from surface water and storing it seasonally, and it could have served up to 1,115 homes.

According to Warm Heeg, the municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân considered the financial risks of providing a guarantee too great. The municipality spent another year investigating whether other public bodies could help cover those risks. Those efforts were unsuccessful. Nieuwe Warmte Nu, the programme in which the project participated, reports that the project was discontinued on July 1, 2026.

Heeg therefore shows that even a community initiative with well-developed plans can fall through over how financial risks are shared.

Amsterdam: public control also requires affordable connections

A similar debate about financial conditions is taking place in Amsterdam. In April 2026, the municipality, Alliander and Nationale Deelneming Warmte, an EBN subsidiary, signed a development agreement for a publicly owned heating company.

Alliander stressed that the next step would only be possible if the national government made connections more affordable on a lasting basis. According to the participating parties, existing subsidies are fragmented across different target groups, meaning that multiple schemes must be applied for to develop a single district heating network. Greater public control therefore does not automatically remove these financial obstacles.

More than a third of projects surveyed delayed or discontinued

These local examples are consistent with the National District Heating Trend Report 2026, prepared by Berenschot on behalf of Stichting Warmtenetwerk and NPLW. The study includes input from 44 municipalities, 26 housing associations, five heating companies and 2,850 residents connected to district heating networks.

The report describes 150 projects under development, together representing more than 560,000 planned connections. At the same time, 37 per cent of projects are experiencing delays or being discontinued. Financing, affordability and acceptance remain obstacles. These figures do not mean that 37 per cent of all Dutch district heating networks are at a standstill: they refer to the projects covered by this study.

The new Local Heat Transition Monitor, published on October 7, confirms the broader problem. According to NPLW, district heating projects cannot become financially viable without additional funding. Some municipalities also lack technical, legal and financial expertise. Meanwhile, grid congestion is delaying neighbourhoods that want to switch to fully electric heating.

Heat and electricity need to be considered together

South Holland is therefore also calling for district heating networks to be recognised as public infrastructure that can ease pressure on the electricity grid. Officials argue that using available waste heat and geothermal energy can reduce the need for individual electric heating.

NPLW likewise calls for grid connections to collective heating systems wherever possible. The programme also identifies certainty about residents’ tariffs, simpler subsidy schemes and clarity on funding beyond 2030 as conditions for progress.

Support already exists: the District Heating Investment Subsidy has a budget of €200 million for the current application round. Applications are open until November 30, 2026. However, the calls from South Holland and elsewhere show that the parties involved believe more is needed to make projects both viable and affordable for residents.