In five years’ time homes in Leiden and The Hague and greenhouses in the Westland district could be heated using residual heat generated by industrial activities in Rotterdam port, the NRC reports.

The initiative has been drawn up by the port and provincial authorities, energy firm Eneco, gas company GasUnie and Rotterdam’s city heating company Warmtebedrijf Rotterdam.

The aim is the reuse heat produced by industry and so cut energy use and CO2 emissions. The new network, the initiators say, could provide energy to some 500,000 homes.

Heat from the industrial activities in the port would be piped from Rotterdam to Leiden via the Heineken plant in Zoeterwoude, which will also be using the heat, to The Hague.

The construction is ‘not rocket science’ the paper quotes provincial deputy and chairman of the Warmtealliantie Han Weber as saying. The only challenge, he said, is finding the right route for the pipelines.

‘We want the urban areas to be energy neutral by 2035 and the greenhouse industry by 2050. Re-using heat will be a crucial tool to achieve this,’ Weber told the paper. Weber says the whole network will cost €4bn to €5bn.