Between June 11th and 12th 2025 the RE-Greenhouse partner consortium visited the Park Rijswijk, took part in GreenTech Amsterdam, and toured World Horti Center and TomatoWorld. The programme combined field observation with stakeholder dialogue (workshop), providing fresh insight into energy sourcing, district-heat integration, and the information growers need to plan their own transition to more sustainable systems.
At the Park Rijswijk and HVC district-heat plans
At the Park Rijswijk, a campus dedicated to chemistry and energy innovation, hosted presentations from HVC outlining the operational “Warmtesysteem Westland” district-heat network. The system draws on geothermal heat delivered by the 40 MWᵗʰ Trias Westland well and is then distributed to greenhouse enterprises and households through a public-utility model heat network already proven in more than a dozen NL municipalities. Such established governance, development and the concentration of renewable-heat sources in Westland provide an interesting benchmark for other regions across Europe.
The visit continued to the Polanen geothermal well near Monster, an additional 2300 deep source that is expected to supply eighty-plus degrees Celsius water to roughly two dozen largescale greenhouse production businesses once surface installations are complete. Linking this new source to the existing Warmtesysteem Westland network would allow region wide trading of renewable heat and further reduce dependency on natural gas across the cluster.
GreenTech workshop with growers and technology suppliers
During GreenTech Amsterdam FarmTech Society and Inagro convened the workshop “Future greenhouse energy transition: Empowering growers in North-Western Europe”. Presentations reviewed policy drivers, natural-gas trends and the six renewable-energy options under study – solar thermal, heat networks, residual heat, pellets, wood, and biogas. Attending grower organizations, equipment providers and regional agencies discussed reliability thresholds, cost transparency and data formats that would make decision-support tools genuinely useful in daily greenhouse management. Their feedback will shape forthcoming comparative analyses and best-practice guidance.
World Horti Center and TomatoWorld: needs analysis and digital demand data
At the World Horti Center in Naaldwijk the partner consortium reviewed preliminary findings from a needs analysis that canvassed greenhouse operators on energy-data requirements, cost visibility and reliability thresholds for renewable-heat projects. The insights provide discussions to guide forthcoming best-practice comparisons and shape the architecture of the decision-support system, reaffirming the centre’s role as a bridge between education, applied research and industry in international horticulture.
The final stop at TomatoWorld, Honselersdijk, showcased the world’s first public 5G test facility inside a greenhouse. High-bandwidth connectivity supports dense sensor arrays and autonomous robotics, generating fine-grained climate and energy-demand data, which illustrate how digitalisation can optimise renewable-heat utilisation.
Follow-up
The insights gathered over the three days will now be synthesised with earlier pilots across partner countries. This consolidated evidence base will refine the decision-support system and underpin technical guidelines and capacity-building activities aimed at accelerating the uptake of renewable energy in greenhouses throughout North-Western Europe.