Despite the historic usage of wind power to drain water and grind grain, the Netherlands today lags 21 of the 26 other member states of the European Union in the consumption of energy from renewable sources. In 2022, the Netherlands consumed just 15% of its total energy from renewables. According to statistics published by Eurostat, it was the last among the EU countries in the shift away from global warming-inducing energy sources. The leading renewable sources in the country are biomass, wind, solar and both geothermal and aerothermal power (mostly from ground source and air source heat pumps). In 2018 decisions were made to replace natural gas as the main energy source in the Netherlands with increased electrification being a major part of this process.
The low take up of renewable energy may be partially explained by the flat and often sub-sea level landscape and subsequent limits to hydropower resources, although hydro poor resource countries such as Denmark have still managed to make renewables the focus of their energy needs. In 2022, Dutch wind turbines had a total nameplate capacity of 8,831 MW, accounting for 4,20% of final energy consumption. As of 2022, a number of large offshore windfarms have either come online (Gemini wind farm) are planned or have been granted authorisation (145,628 GWh). The total average capacity of the current offshore windfarms is 10,169 GWh. Most of the tiny contribution made to electricity generation by hydroelectricity came from three power plants. A large part of the renewable electricity sold in the Netherlands comes from Norway, a country which generates almost all its electricity from hydropower plants. In the Netherlands, household consumers can choose to buy renewable electricity. The relative amount of renewable energy used by household users has been steadily increasing, rising from 38% in 2008 to 80% in 2020. One area in which the Netherlands is a relative leader is in the adoption of electric plug in vehicles. In 2022 plug-in electric vehicles in the Netherlands represented 10,7% of cars owned, making it the world's second highest share after Norway. Electric vehicles are able to run on renewable electricity with lower emissions and have the potential to provide grid power storage facilities.
Historical trends
Early development in overall renewable energy Total renewable energy use was just 1.1% of overall energy use in 1990. This increased to 7.4% in 2018. The electricity sector first overtook the heating and cooling sector in 2005 in terms of total renewable energy use.
Recent trends in renewable energy All EU countries along with Iceland and Norway submitted National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) to outline the steps taken, and projected progress by each country between 2010 and 2020 to meet the Renewable Energy Directive targets for each country. Each plan contains a detailed breakdown of each country's current renewable energy usage and plans for future developments. According to projections by the Dutch submission in 2020 the gross final energy consumption in the Netherlands by sector breaks down as follows:
*After adjustments. Using the unadjusted NREAP data approximately half of energy consumption (52.8%) is used in the heating and cooling sector. The heating and cooling sector (also known as the thermal sector) includes domestic heating and air conditioning, industrial processes such as furnaces and any use of heat generally. The next largest share is the electricity sector at 24.7%, followed by the transport sector at 22.5%. Total annual energy consumption before adjustments for aviation is projected to be 52,088 ktoe (52.million tonnes of oil equivalent) by 2020. The Netherlands has a minimum target of 14% of renewable energy use by 2020. The sectoral targets for 2020 break down into national targets of 8.7% in the heating and cooling sector, 37% in the electricity sector and 10.3% in the transport sector although these figures may be slightly different from those implied by the minimum trajectory path. The following table shows the actual results recorded of renewable energy use by sector:
Actual overall renewable energy use grew from 4.3% in 2009 to 5.5% by 2014. The minimum trajectory planned for 2013–2014 was 5.9% and for 2015–2016 7.6% of total energy use. The Netherlands is regarded as amongst the most likely countries to miss 2020 national renewable energy targets as outlined by the Renewable Energy Directive.
Energy consumption by sector
Electricity
In 2023, 47.8% of electricity generation in the Netherlands came from renewable sources, up from 9.5% in 2010 and 3.4% in 2000. Current Dutch government policy is, through the use of renewable sources and nuclear power, aiming for zero-emission electricity generation by 2035.
Renewable energy sources
Wind power
2016 was a record year for new wind turbine installations totalling 887 MW bringing the totalled installed capacity to 4,328 MW by year end. 691 MW of the new installations were offshore. The Dutch government has a target of 6,000 MW of onshore wind power by 2020 and 4,450 MW of offshore wind power by 2023. In 2017, the Netherlands had 2294 wind turbines. The wind capacity installed at end 2017 will, in a normal wind year, produced 9% of electricity, when the equivalent value for Germany was 16.1% and Portugal 14%. In 2022 the Netherlands announced it increased its offshore wind target to 21 GW by 2030. That would meet approximately 75% of the countries electricity needs. With this, offshore wind energy makes an important contribution to achieving the increased climate target of 55% less CO2-emissions.
Solar power
By 2017 year end cumulative installed capacity of solar PV power reached a preliminary estimate of 2,749 MW with 700 MW added in that year alone. Whilst the Netherlands saw its capacity grow by the fourth highest in Europe during 2017 its installed capacity per inhabitant remained relatively low at 160.9 Watts per inhabitant compared to the European average of 208.3 Watts per inhabitant.
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