This autumn the construction of a new sports complex on the former football field in Sportdreef will start in Gavere. The municipality wants to fully heat the new sports complex with a heat pump. That pump has to work thanks to water from the Scheldt. And that is a different system than the classic system of heat pumps, explains architect Piet Sileghem: “The heat exchanger is located here on the Scheldt water. This is interesting because the Scheldt water has a very large flow rate. It also has a very large and constant heat exchange rate. content. So that water is always 10 to 12 degrees, even in winter. The advantage is that you are always assured of a mass of energy.”
Heating with river water already exists in the Netherlands, but for Flanders the project is very exceptional, especially for a public building.