Best practice

City of Almere

Almere, a new town with 175,000 inhabitants in 2005 situated east of Amsterdam, is expected to grow to 350,000 by 2030. From the start in 1975, the city committed itself to a sustainable development. This commitment is renewed with the Environmental Plan 2003-2007, targeting at 20% CO2 reduction within 6 years, 25% sustainable energy for housings by 2010 and inclusion of large-scale wind energy. The two major new communities targeted for cRRescendo project will comprise 1,659 eco homes, 454 solar homes, 104 passive homes and a number of commercial and public buildings, in which about 4,000 people will live and/or work. cRRescendo will have a direct impact on about 2,750 + 12,000 houses and affect 20 to 30,000 people directly.

Depending on the local council, other cities have smaller plans. Most of the objectives are focusing on 2020 with a CO2 reduction of 20%. A large amount of strategies are concentrating on the stimulation of energy efficiency improvement for local homeowners in the existing building stock.

Download here the local assessment of the city of Almere.

Mobilization of potential

Solar Island Almere, part of cRRescendo project

Noorderplassen-West will be a suburban area of about 2,750 houses, with strong accent on water and sustainability.
Around 10% of the heat for all 1,097 homes in Noorderplassen-west (in fact 10% of all 2,750 houses in the sub-district) is generated by a Solar Island of more than 6,700 m2 of solar collectors (see artist impression).
Furthermore, 1,000 homes will receive 100% of their electricity from renewable energy sources (solar energy and biomass).

For more information, download here the description of this best practice