17% of Dutch energy consumption from renewable soruces last year; Up 2%

Last year, 17 percent of energy consumed in the Netherlands came from renewable sources, 2 percent more than in 2022, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Friday. The largest amount of renewable energy still comes from biomass, though its use is decreasing. The Netherlands is still well below the European Union average on the renewable energy front.

The renewable energy goal set in the 2013 National Energy Agreement was that 16 percent of energy must come from renewable sources by 2023. The Netherlands achieved that target. The new target for 2030, agreed at the EU level, is that 42.5 percent of European energy consumption must be renewable by 2030. It is not yet known what this means for the Netherlands.

Last year, the Netherlands consumed 308 petajoules of renewable energy. The largest part of that still came from biomass (106 PJ), such as wood, manure, or food waste, though it was 3 percent lower than a year earlier. The decrease is mainly due to power stations using 31 percent less biomass.

Wind energy consumption increased by 25 percent to 96 PJ. The increase was mainly due to more wind turbines. The capacity of offshore wind farms increased by 55 percent to almost 4 gigawatts in 2023. Onshore capacity rose by 10 percent to almost 7 GW.

Solar energy consumption also saw a strong increase, rising by 17 percent to 73 PJ in 2023. Here, too, the main cause is more solar panels. “The total installed capacity of solar panels has increased by 24 percent compared to a year earlier to over 24 GW.” Last year was also an above-average sunny year.

The Netherlands' share of renewable energy is still well below the EU average. At the EU level, an average of 23 percent of energy consumption was from renewable sources in 2022, when the Netherlands only had 15 percent. Only Luxembourg, Belgium, Malta, and Ireland had a lower share of renewable energy. Sweden leads the EU ranking with 66 percent renewable energy, followed by Finland (48 percent) and Latvia (43 percent).