-Culture Under Fire- 'Making natural gas free' in Nijmegen complete fiasco

Making the Nijmegen neighborhood of Meijhorst "natural gas-free" (read: forced shutdown of natural gas) has been a "resounding failure," headlines De Gelderlander. The neighborhood of social housing was supposed to serve as an example for the rest of the city, as Nijmegen is deeply committed to green faith and wants to completely cut itself off from natural gas by 2045.

What could go wrong?

The rental homes in question have been renovated by housing corporation Portaal and disconnected from natural gas in recent years. The homes were insulated, the roofs filled with solar panels and heat pumps were installed. What else could go wrong?

Housing association pats itself on the back

Well, the living enjoyment of those who have to live in them, according to the article in De Gelderlander. Residents complain bitterly. But Portaal wants to know nothing of this. "We stuck our necks out at the time by pioneering this and we are still proud of the result. The technology is adequate," insists program manager Fréderique Houben. And the 'regional manager' for Nijmegen, Daniëlle Gerrits, presses the newspaper: "The houses are doing very well. They surrender more energy than they use."

Never as hot as you want it to be

So Portaal awards itself the green toilet duck, but measured by customer satisfaction, the "132 Zero-to-the-Meter," as the project is called, literally scores zero on the meter. In the summer and at night, it's bloody hot, says one resident. Others also complain about the vagaries of the thermostat: you almost never get it as hot as you want it to be. Resident Daniëlle complains about the air in the house being far too dry. "I regularly have pain in the eyes and pain in the head."

Heat pump already broken down three times

In addition, according to the residents, the technology used often breaks down. According to them, Portaal, outwardly so pleased with itself, keeps itself unreachable in case of complaints, and when they finally do come, repairs are done poorly. "We've all had multiple issues," said Danielle. "With me, the heat pump was broken three times already." She recently had to get through two weeks without heating and hot water. "An entire unit had to be replaced and it wasn't in stock."

From the rain into the drizzle

The complaints in Nijmegen are not isolated. Elsewhere, too, where people are being forced off the gas and have to switch to a supposedly "green" alternative, victims are complaining about the experiment being conducted over their heads. In Duindorp near The Hague Vestia had started experimenting with a sea heat plant. The thing worked poorly and cost connected citizens double the cost of a regular energy bill. The switch to a thermal storage system turned out to be a case of "from the rain into the drizzle. The terrible thing for victims of the gas ban is that there is no escape. You have to go along with the alternative, because you have no choice.

Forced nering as a socialist ideal

The compulsion built into the "energy transition" takes away any need for the supplier to do a decent job, whether it's installation, equipment operation or aftercare. Cutting off households from natural gas is easy enough for a government, but it is a form of abuse to offer only one alternative to do so, creating a new monopoly. But yes, as we wrote earlier, forced nering is a socialist ideal, preferably with a state-owned company, but also with a company to whom the monopoly is awarded. And green is the new red. So why should a green government and its subcontractors give themselves competition?

This article was written by Guus Hermans and first appeared on Culture under Fire by the Civitas Christiana foundation. We have reproduced the article with the foundation's permission, for which a thousand thanks!