From sewers to energy hubs: What Antwerp’s hidden canals have to do with the future of water:
As part of the 6th partner Meeting in Antwerp, our hosts from AQUAFIN organized a guided tour through Antwerp’s Ruien—a 800-year-old network of underground canals that went from powering trade to carrying waste to, today, quietly fueling a sustainability revolution. These tunnels aren’t just history. They’re a metaphor for how we rethink infrastructure.
Wastewater treatment plants—once the city’s dirty secret—are now piloting ways to become energy hubs. By visiting the BESS of Aquafin NV in Merksem, we could see and understand the proof of it.
This system made tangible that we have passed from the middle ages right in the middle of an epic energy transition: From fossil fuels towards more renewable energy!
Since renewable energy is less predictable, there's a lot of variability in energy or electricity production or availability and consumption, so we need more assets that are flexible and that we can use to balance the grid.
Though the projects first pilot being a relatively small battery in the light of energy transition and the challenges society has, it became clear, however, that it's the combination of all assets that will be important in the future.