Dutch greenhouses are moving off natural gas for heating, but that removes the CO2 that crops need. Growers who switch to geothermal, heat pumps, or residual heat still have to source CO2 elsewhere, and that supply is often uncertain. The article highlights Project Osiris in West Brabant, where captured CO2 and residual heat from a waste-to-energy plant would run through 25 kilometers of pipelines to 14 growers covering almost 200 hectares. The piece argues that policy has not caught up. Projects like Osiris need 15 years of SDE++ subsidy support to be financeable, while growers face unclear rules on external CO2 availability and cost. Ruud van der Vliet calls for one coherent policy covering heat, electricity, CO2, and infrastructure, with commitments that survive political cycles. For anyone tracking greenhouse decarbonization, the takeaway is that clean heat and carbon supply have to be planned as one system.
