Renewable energy sources used in most Dutch electricity production

According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), more than half of electricity production in the Netherlands comes from renewable sources. This makes it the first time in history that more of the country’s electricity comes from solar and wind energy than from fossil fuels.

More renewable energy in the Netherlands

In the first six months of 2024, 32.3 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in the Netherlands was produced from renewable energy sources, representing 53 percent of the total 60.5 billion kWh. Although there was less sunlight than usual this year, more solar panels increased solar energy production to 11.7 billion kWh, an increase of 0.8 billion kWh compared to last year.

Wind energy generated 17.4 billion kWh of electricity, which is 4.4 billion kWh more than in the same period last year. More wind energy was used from new offshore wind farms and replacing old, smaller turbines with larger ones. More than 60 percent of the additional wind energy came from offshore wind farms.

Electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar power became much cheaper than coal power, which meant that coal-fired power plants had difficulty offering competitive energy prices. As a result, only 3.9 billion kWh of electricity was produced from coal combustion – almost 40 percent more. less than in the first half of 2023. The production of electricity from natural gas also decreased to 21.3 billion kWh.

Energy consumption in the Netherlands is increasing

Energy consumption in the country increased by 5% in the first half of this year. to 55.8 kWh, which is slightly less than before the virus pandemic. The Netherlands also exported more electricity than it imported, despite declines in the amount of electricity supplied to countries such as Germany and Belgium.

The Dutch government plans to continue to make greater use of renewable energy sources and wants 70% of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030.