Renewable sources accounted for close to half of the total electricity production in the Netherlands last year, new data from Statistics Netherlands has found.
Electricity production from renewable sources such as sun, wind and biomass rose by 10% in 2024, to 61 billion kWh, with production from fossil fuel sources dropping by 4%.
Wind and solar
The overall growth in renewable energy was largely driven by a significant increase in wind and solar energy production – production from solar energy peaked during May and August, accounting for close to one-third of total electricity produced in that period.
April, too, was a strong month for renewable electricity generation, with the share of renewables as high as 63% for the month, due to plenty of sun and wind.
‘Even though it was not as sunny as in previous years, electricity generated from solar energy was up by 11% to 22 billion kWh in 2024,’ Statistics Netherlands said. ‘This is due to an increase in installed capacity, which rose by 14% to 24 GW. By the middle of the year, 42% of the installed capacity of solar panels was on the roofs of homes or near them, and the rest on roofs of or near commercial properties.’
Wind energy reported a 13% increase, meanwhile, with offshore wind farm production increasing by close to a third (32%), and capacity rising by 19% to 4.7 GW.
Electricity generation from biomass declined by 6%, largely due to lower production levels at power stations that co-fire with biomass.
Fossil fuels
Statistics Netherlands’ data also indicated that the the use of fossil fuels in the production of energy continued to decline, with coal-based electricity production falling by 5%, and electricity from natural gas also decreasing, by 4%.
The Netherlands reported a 2% increase in electricity imports last year, totalling 20 billion kWh in 2024. Exports, however, dropped by 1 billion kWh to 24 billion kWh. Read more here.
