Startanalyse aardgasvrije buurten updated

13 March 2025

PBL published the 2025 update of the Startanalyse aardgasvrije buurten, the analysis municipalities use when they write their heat transition plans. It works out, for each of roughly 13,500 neighbourhoods, what four strategies for heating buildings without natural gas would cost and deliver. The calculation is PBL's, with the Vesta model; our part is the spatial modelling underneath it and the maps that make the results usable.

That last part matters more than it sounds. A national report tells a municipality very little about its own streets, and the answer genuinely differs per neighbourhood: it depends on the age of the housing stock, on density, and on what happens to be under the pavement. A map that a council member can open and zoom into is what turns a national analysis into a local conversation.

More on this work in energy in the built environment.