On August 17 and 18, 2024, the annual Mill Festivities in Rotselaar took place. This year's theme was 'warmth from the river'.
The Watermill of Rotselaar is the cradle of Ecopower, with its 70.000 member-cooperators one of the largest energy communities of Europe. There, at a kitchen table 33 years ago, Ecopower was conceived and raised. The water turbine of the watermill on the river Dyle dates from 1902 and up till now produces green electricity for about 250 Ecopower households.
The Watermill of Rotselaar is one of the three pilot projects of the AquaCOM Interreg NWE project, which focuses on aquathermal energy and energy communities. Project partner Ecopower will build a heat network at the mill site, provided with heat extracted with a heat pump from the water of the river. The fact that the heat pump will be powered by the green electricity of the mill makes the heat 100% renewable. It will replace the existing heating systems on gas and wood.
Attendees could take a tour of the site and learn about the plans for the heat network or visit an information stand, decorated by Ecopower and heat expert and partner organisation Extraqt. It covered aquathermal energy in a nutshell and the implementation at the Mill as a pilot site. The overarching European project was further explained with an emphasis on the importance of heat networks run by energy communities.
Throughout the location, there were facts to be found about aquathermal energy. This allowed the youngest visitors to complete a quiz. Each day, an innocent hand chose a winner from the correct entries.
The innovative AquaCOM project was also picked up by the press: read the article on the webpage of the public television VRT NWS (taken over from Radio 2). It was also covered on the regional pages of newspapers and their website: HLN, Het Nieuwsblad, on the site of the Province of Flemish Brabant (co-financer of the project) and on the local television channel: robtv. As a result, several people especially came from all over the Flemish Region to learn more about aquathermal energy
The weather in Rotselaar was good. The music, the turnout (about 1500 people) and the good food created an excellent atmosphere !
