Renewable energy takes over: Dutch fossil fuel use halved

Dutch electricity production is rapidly greening, as solar and wind energy accounted for half of the national production for 2024. This is the highlight of the recently published report by the statistics institute CBS on last year’s electricity generation. Let’s take a closer look at the figures behind the greening of Dutch electricity production. 

According to the institute, 120 billion kWh of electricity were generated in the Netherlands last year. 61 came from solar, wind, and biomass, marking a 10% production increase compared to 2023. The peak of renewable power generation was April, a sunny and windy month in which renewables generated 63% of the monthly electricity production. 

Renewables’ step up is closely related to a dip of fossil fuel-generated electricity, which has halved in the last five years. Oil, natural gas, and coal electricity production is decreasing. As solar and wind power become more price competitive, the use of non-renewable sources is shrinking. 

Wind power generation 

Wind electricity generation represented a quarter of the total production–33 billion kWh. While onshore production remained similar, offshore production grew by 32%, driven by a significant capacity addition at the end of 2023. As shown in the chart above, winter is the peak generation moment. 

Wind capacity additions grew nearly fourfold in a decade. The surge of offshore wind farms was crucial to this expansion. At the end of 2024, there were 4.7 GW of installed capacity, which generated over 15 billion kWh–enough to power 4.3 million households for a year. This is nearly as much onshore wind farms, despite having less capacity. Thanks to the higher speed of winds, sea wind parks can produce more. 

In September auctions for IJmuiden Ver Gamma-A, IJmuiden Ver Gamma-B, and Nederwiek I-A, each offering 1 GW of capacity, are set to occur. We will see then if and how much of this capacity will be auctioned. While these Dutch tenders lack government financial backing, they provide a free grid connection. The government had previously divided the IJmuiden Ver Gamma site into two sections to lower financial risks for developers.

The rise of solar electricity

Although 2024 was not as sunny as previous years, electricity generated from solar energy grew by 11% last year. In the period from May to August, solar energy accounted for a third of the production. As CBS notes, this increase is due to an increase in capacity. Solar panel installations kept growing, though slower than in the past years. The chart below gives an overview. 

CBS reports that, halfway through 2024, there were over 3 million solar installations in the Netherlands, boasting over 26 million kilowatt-peak (kWp). This unit of measure represents the peak power output of a solar system. For example, a solar array with a 5 kWp means that working at its maximum capacity will produce 5 kWh in an hour. 

After several record-breaking years in a row, solar panel installations are slowing down. Despite lower-than-ever prices, the government's discontinuation of the net metering scheme–and the uncertainty surrounding it–impacted residential installations, which shrank by 70% in 2024. At the same time, energy providers started charging their customers feed-in tariffs amid rising hours with negative electricity prices. 

Trade organization Holland Solar forecasts stable capacity additions around 4 GW until 2028. 2023 marked a record year, with nearly 5 GW of new installed capacity. While commenting on the government decision to discontinue the net metering scheme, the organization acknowledged that the Dutch energy transition was entering a new phase. Therefore, it called for support for purchasing boilers, heat pumps, and charging points to increase self-consumption. 

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Plummet of fossil electricity

In 2019, coal, oil, and natural gas produced over 77% of the Dutch electricity. In the span of a luster, this share dropped to 50%, as production dipped from 92 to 55 billion kWh. The column chart below shows how the incidence of coal has become less important since 2015, when it produced nearly as much electricity as natural gas. In the past few years, we are also seeing a drop in natural gas-generated electricity, which, in 2024, dropped by 4%.

Although the use of gas for power generation fell, the total amount of gas consumed stayed virtually the same in 2024. This is because the chemical industry used more of it. Yet, in November and December more of it needed to be used than in the same period of the previous year, as there were fewer windy and sunny days. 

Overall, both imports and gas extraction fell in 2024. For the first time since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports shrank by 11%. The United States remains the leading supplier of LNG, providing 68% of imports. Domestic extraction fell further, as the Slochteren gas field shut down. 

Further solar and wind energy capacity additions will help drive the electricity transition forward. At the same time, to take an extra step and fully exploit renewables’ potential, action and policies on energy storage will be essential. 

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