We are pleased to announce that the Asper Dorothea co-investment Partnership has successfully completed its first investments in the Dutch district heating sector. Since the start of 2021, the Partnership has made commitments for c€100m, or 40% of its total size, backing sustainable heating networks in two medium-size municipalities in the Netherlands.

After these investments, both networks are expected to further expand organically over the next years as new customers are connected and additional energy sources are added to supply them. Initial phases of heat networks require a flexible heat source and these networks are currently fuelled by sustainable biomass. This includes for example waste biomass from parks, garden maintenance or similar sources which are particularly efficient for heat production and have no meaningful alternative use. Once the initial backbone of a network is built, additional capacity can be added using other sustainable heat sources like waste heat, heat pumps or geothermal energy or by efficiency gains such as from condensers.

The Asper team is already working on follow-on investments to expand both networks this year, as well as on additional investments in other municipalities in the Netherlands. These investments are part of the broader Dutch sustainable energy platform backed by Asper Dorothea, which has been recently rebranded as “Energie voor Elkaar” (“Energy for Each Other”, or “EVE” for short), is based in Ede and is led by Valentijn Kleijnen, a prominent entrepreneur and industry leader in the Dutch energy transition.

Backing entrepreneurial development teams to support their growth is at the core of Asper’s mission to “Build the New”, and of its investment strategy that combines infrastructure asset investing with a private equity-style approach to deliver growth and value creation.

For more information see EVE/Energie voor Elkaar and Asper Dorothea