‘Making progress thanks to a young group of driven civil servants’
Siwart Mackintosh is an alderman in Kapelle, a municipality in Zeeland with around 13,000 inhabitants, and he is one of the nominees for Hydrogen Alderman of the Year. “I was pleasantly surprised and honoured that our work is being noticed. I think it’s important that attention is paid to a smaller municipality like ours. But above all: I don’t do it alone. I have a fantastic group of young, active civil servants around me.”
Mackintosh himself will soon be stepping down from local politics. “This nomination is a wonderful way to round off my term. Although that’s no argument for winning,” he laughs. “I mainly see it as a pat on the back for a smaller municipality like Kapelle. Here too, it’s possible to take innovative steps with a relatively small but driven civil-service organisation. It works both ways. My enthusiasm for innovation is contagious, even where you might expect resistance as a newly appointed civil servant.”
Major task
Like many other municipalities, Kapelle is dealing with grid congestion, sustainability targets and an electricity network that is too small. “The task is huge,” the alderman confirms. The shortage of energy is putting a brake on the Zeeland economy, according to the province. Zeeland’s power grid is too small and must be expanded with new power cables and high-voltage substations, which will not be ready until 2030–2035. This presents challenges for residents, the municipality and businesses.
Backbone
One example is the De Smokkelhoek industrial estate in Kapelle. When the grid operator said “no,” the desire arose to connect the industrial estate to the national hydrogen network. That network is planned to run through the Beveland region not far from the Smokkelhoek industrial estate. The alderman: “In practice, we’ll soon be right on top of the backbone. For that reason I pushed hard for a branch connection. That wasn’t a given; we’re now one of four branch connections on the national shortlist. Hydrogen will become an integral part of the industrial estate’s set-up. You can keep waiting until a thicker cable arrives and the main station is expanded, but you’re better off looking at what is already possible now.”
No magic wand
Hydrogen gradually emerged as a building block for the municipality of Kapelle. Mackintosh: “Sustainability already had a ‘substantial place’ in the municipality early on; hydrogen followed later.”
Hydrogen supplied via the backbone is a sustainable energy source for businesses, alongside green electricity and geothermal heat. In addition, it is difficult for heavy industry to decarbonise using electricity; hydrogen can help. “Especially for companies with high-energy processes that currently use gas, hydrogen can play a role in reducing emissions. But we’re keeping both feet on the ground. Hydrogen isn’t a magic wand; it contributes to the solution just as solar and wind energy do. A mix of energy carriers and users is needed. At the moment, for example, hydrogen is still too expensive for businesses. But I’m convinced it will play a role in the future. You can either take it up actively and be among the frontrunners, or wait until others have done it.”
Anchoring the plans
An important milestone took place in 2023: the Municipality of Kapelle expressed its interest to Gasunie/Hynetwork through an Expression of Interest. In 2024 a cooperation agreement was then signed with Angela Hulst, innovation manager at grid operator Stedin, for the Smokkelhoek industrial estate, and companies joined forces in a consortium. “That’s how the plans became well anchored at both administrative and regional level.”
Guarantee
To enable the study into a branch connection to the backbone, a CSA (Connection Study Agreement) was necessary. As the first alderman in the Netherlands, Mackintosh signed it with a risk guarantee from the municipality. “The question was who had to sign. In the end a company had to do it, and TopTaste signed the CSA with support from the Municipality of Kapelle.”
Bringing the council up to speed
That required cooperation from the municipal council. “That went very naturally. I’ve been an alderman for seven years now and before that I worked as a councillor. I know that as a councillor you don’t want to be surprised with a plan where you have to say ‘yes or no.’ You want to be taken along so you have the knowledge to weigh your opinion. That’s what we did. We set up a number of working groups on specific topics with civil servants and councillors. In those, we updated councillors on content and developments. Topics include, for example, the Environment and Planning Act, electricity, heating, making the municipal organisation itself more sustainable, the built environment and, of course, hydrogen.”
Oil in the machine
“I’m proud of what we’ve achieved,” he continues. “But I don’t do it alone. I do it together with the young people here, the committed businesses and with a driven provincial executive from the province, Jo-Annes de Bat, who has now become a State Secretary. The municipality is a flat organisation; people can easily drop by my office. I use my long experience in the business world to coach the young colleagues and help them grow. And they keep me sharp because they know everything about hydrogen. My role is to be the oil in the machine: to stimulate developments and put people in the right position. There has also been regular contact with the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Climate (formerly Climate and Green Growth) and Infrastructure and Water Management. Over time, the realisation grew that there is a lot of knowledge here in Kapelle.”
Choices
“I come from a generation that made choices,” he concludes. “I don’t want to point fingers, but they are choices whose consequences we are seeing now. It’s good that I can contribute to correcting or balancing those choices. So that the living environment becomes cleaner for our children and grandchildren. After this winter and after the municipal elections I myself will no longer play a role in it, but I will keep following it closely. It’s a topic that matters to me.”
