Arnhem

Arnhem is usually introduced through the battle, the bridge, and its role as Gelderland's capital. The sharper modern story is that Arnhem functions as one of the Netherlands' electricity workshops. The municipality has 171,225 residents, yet its own economic programme brands Arnhem and the surrounding region as Hotspot Energy because organisations such as KEMA, TenneT, DNV, Alliander, Connectr, and the Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen (HAN) are unusually concentrated here. The legacy matters: KEMA was founded in Arnhem in 1927, and the city still keeps electrical testing, grid engineering, and energy education close together on a small urban footprint.

That density is visible in the numbers. Cleantech Park Arnhem now lists 141 resident companies. The broader Innovatief Maakdistrict on the east side of the city already supports about 7,600 jobs, and Arnhem's 2040 vision for the district targets 10 percent extra employment. When South Korea's Hyosung opened its European R&D centre on the former KEMA terrain in October 2025, it explained the choice bluntly: Arnhem offers direct access to grid operators, research institutes, and industrial partners. That is the Wikipedia gap. Arnhem is not just a place where electricity is discussed; it is a place where the institutions that test, route, store, and govern electricity are packed close enough to learn faster.

Biologically, Arnhem resembles an electric eel. Over time the organism reorganises itself around one specialised capability until that capability shapes everything else. Arnhem's path dependence runs from KEMA's legacy into today's electricity campuses, test fields, and demonstration events. Mutualism ties grid operators, testing houses, universities, startups, and manufacturers into one knowledge web. Niche construction then makes the city more attractive to the next entrant. Arnhem's economic edge is not cheap land or sheer size. It is the compounding advantage of becoming the place where Dutch and European grid bottlenecks are prototyped in public.