Renewable energy in the Netherlands

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.^[1] According to statistics published by Eurostat, it was the last among the EU countries in the shift away from global warming-inducing energy sources.^[2] 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.^[3]

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Total energy production by source in petajoules^[4]
  Coal   Oil   Gas   Renewable   Other sources

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,^[5] 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.^{[6][circular reference]} 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^[7] to 80% in 2020.^[8]

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,^[9] 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.^[10]