NEXTgarden – Climate Neutral Greenhouse Farming

NEXTgarden aims to develop and implement innovative agricultural and food production techniques that reduce the environmental impact, stimulate circularity in greenhouse farming, giving space for innovations such as resource recovery, bio-material development and food waste prevention. Initiatives like this, give consumers a more central position in the chain to shift from food chains towards a more holistic, sustainable “food system”, in which the relationship up to the primary producer is strengthened.

NEXTgarden

The first energy-neutral horticultural area of the Netherlands

NEXTgarden, in East Netherlands, wants to be the first energy-neutral horticultural area of the Netherlands. The biofermentation installation, the floating solar park, and the large solar park on the Lingewal are important contributors. Together with the horticulturalists, we are now looking at ways to better store heat. Also, we are looking at the feasibility of a heating network. Exploratory drilling helps with this search.

We are working towards a more sustainable Municipality of Lingewaard, in East Netherlands. We want to achieve this by saving energy and by searching for new, clean energy sources. We also want to increase the sustainability of our heat supply. By storing heat into the ground, for example.

Exploratory drilling to a depth of nearly 500 meters at NEXTgarden took place end of October 2020, to establish whether the ground is suitable for heat storage. The drilling was executed by a contractor under supervision of TNO, the Netherlands Organisation for applied scientific research.

NEXTgarden is located in the A15 agri-corridor, and it is the development area for horticulture with over 235 companies and 2,150 jobs.
Here, successful entrepreneurs, knowledge institutions and governments work together on concrete initiatives that are making the whole production chain more smart, profitable, and sustainable.
The development area is sized 735 hectare and offers plentiful space and facilities for the expansion of our successful companies. Also, new entrepreneurs receive a warm welcome.

Read more about our Farm to Fork approach in East Netherlands 

Website NEXTgarden (in Dutch)