Mechelen

Mechelen is a medium-sized city in the heart of Europe, situated between Brussels and Antwerp, with approximately 87,000 inhabitants. In recent years, Mechelen has developed a dynamic image, attracting more residents, entrepreneurs, and tourists. The City prioritizes several cross-cutting themes, including climate neutrality, mobility, entrepreneurship, and poverty.

Mechelen aims to become a carbon-neutral city and signed the ‘Covenant of Mayors’. The city aims to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030 and prepare for a changing climate. In recognition of its commitment to better environmental outcomes, Mechelen was awarded the title of European Green Leaf 2020 and is one of the finalists of the Covenant of Mayors Award 2025. Mechelen is involved in various projects of EU programmes such as Interreg, LIFE, H2020 Horizon Europe and European Urban Initiative (EUI). Since 2024, Mechelen is co-coordinator of the Urban Agenda’s Thematic Partnership on Building Decarbonisation. Mechelen joined the Energy Cities’ network in 2024.

Heat planning and district heating

Mechelen has adopted its municipal heat plan in March 2024, with the support of the EU project SHIFFT. This involved several technical studies on heat potential maps and heat zoning, the investigation of heat networks in strategic areas such as industrial areas, large-scale urban renewal, and the historic city centre. Energy planning and the link between spatial planning and energy policy is a key theme in these initiatives.

Landmark project is the project Climate District Mechelen which investigated the implementation of a city-wide heat network combined with collective renovation of co-owned condominiums along the ringroad. Other key initiatives are the EU projects WaterWarmth and GRITH. The focus of WaterWarmth is the implementation of aquathermal energy in large-scale energy networks. The focus of GRITH (Green Renewable Transition Hotspots) is the transformation of industrial terrains and business parcs to energy hubs.

One stop shop and collective renovation

City of Mechelen operates 1 of the 20 ‘energy houses’ accredited by the Flemish Energy and Climate Agency. With the support of various EU projects, such as See2Do!, Triple A, SHIFFT, BE REEL! and FOSSTER, the energy house has transformed from an energy office granting soft loans to a one-stop-shop that offers integrated home renovation services to citizens in Mechelen. With the LIFE project CondoReno and a successful application to the EU City Facility, the City is orienting its integrated renovation service also towards multi-family homes and co-owned condominiums, supporting condominium associations and condominium managers.

With the LIFE project REFINED – Residential Renovations up-scaling through innovative financing and collective neighbourhood approaches – the City is continuing this focus on collective approaches with condominium retrofits and neighbourhood renovations. As financing is a key leverage factor, the project will develop and implement alternative financing schemes such as on-tax financing and energy performance contracting via energy service companies to unlock energy efficiency and renewable energy in residential buildings.

Energy Communities and Community Energy

Partnerships between cities and energy cooperatives are needed to create a scalable regional support framework for community energy and to accelerate a just energy transition. That’s the reasoning behind the LIFE project TANDEMS, in which City of Mechelen together with local energy cooperative support citizens and stakeholders to invest in local renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. One of the pilots is an energy community set-up in the social housing neighbourhood Otterbeek. In the framework of the EU project ACCESS, City of Mechelen also implemented an energy community and smart eMobility hub in the Keerdok district.

Multi-level and multi-stakeholder governance

City of Mechelen believes in a co-creative approach and emphasizes participation. The EU projects Speak-up and WATSUPS experiment with ‘city labs,’ and citizens’ panel, exploring ways to give a Voice to Nature in this process. In the framework of SHIFFT, City of Mechelen initiated a Transition Arena with local stakeholders to co-create a joint heat strategy. This has led to a multi-level and multi-sectoral partnership, the heat coalition. It is a local green deal in Mechelen between government, businesses and civil society. More than 25 organisations signed the charter of the heat coalition in April 26th 2024 (one month after the adoption of the municipal heat plan).

Want to know more?

• How Mechelen is getting everyone on board to deliver healthy heat (article)
• Addressing social and technical challenges in condominium renovation (article)
• Reimagining Mechelen – A City, it’s River and the Voices of Nature (podcast)
• Experience of Municipalities with EUCF: The case of Mechelen, Belgium (movie)