Brothers Leon and Menno Ammerlaan from Pijnacker grow tropical green plants, but these days they are also an energy company: they extract geothermal heat for their own use, supply it to customers in the region, and won the EZK Energy Award in 2021 with it. "Ideal: geothermal heat is available day and night."
Ammerlaan now calls itself 'Ammerlaan The Green Innovator' (TGI) and, as a fully-fledged energy company, supplies heat to a school, a public swimming pool, a sports complex, 543 homes, and 24 fellow gardeners. In doing so, it saves 12,500,000 m3 of natural gas and 22,250 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
"We are killing two birds with one stone with this project," says Leon Ammerlaan. "Firstly, we are making our business operations more sustainable; our CO2 footprint is currently less than zero. Secondly, we are less dependent on natural gas and ensure a stable(er) energy price."
Makers of Tomorrow, an image campaign by Techniek Nederland, spoke with the entrepreneurs about their ideas and ambitions. You can read the full interview here.