A national-monument office villa on Weteringschans in Amsterdam, near the Rijksmuseum, is being renovated with the aim of improving its energy rating from G to A++. The project uses aquathermia: two heat exchangers beneath the canal water extract energy for a heat pump that can heat and cool the building. The windows are being insulated, and solar panels have been installed on the roof out of sight from the street.

De Groene Grachten says the technique has been applied independently and without subsidies in this historic Amsterdam setting. The organisation estimates that aquathermia could provide sustainable heat to more than 40,000 households in the city centre, using energy carried into the canals through the Amstel.