Dutch renewable energy supply exceeds 10% of mix: govt
The share of renewable energy in the Netherlands increased by more than a quarter to 11.1% in 2020 but overall energy demand fell, according to Statistics Netherlands. The rise was largely due to solar PV and wind energy, but biomass demand also increased, the major utility users group VEMW said June 1.
The EU requires renewable energy to account for 14% of Dutch energy demand by 2020, VEMW said. Based on preliminary figures for 2020, this would require imports of about 16 TWh. In June 2020, an agreement was signed with Denmark to transfer 8-16 TWh of renewable energy, it said.
Dutch consumption of renewable energy amounted to 219 PJ in 2020, which is 19% more than in 2019. The total final energy consumption in 2020 at almost 2,000 PJ was about 100 PJ lower than in 2019.
Wind energy supply rose 29% to 50 PJ, thanks particularly to the Borssele wind farm. Solar energy output – electricity and heat – increased in 2020 by 47% to 30 PJ. Here too, new solar parks played the most important role, with a capacity growth from 7.2 GW in 2019 to just over 10 GW in 2020. At 54%, biomass is still the largest source of renewable energy: 119 PJ (10% up compared with 2019).
The Netherlands is a keen backer of decarbonisation: it is sponsoring a number of projects to generate and transport hydrogen and to transport and sequester CO2 from industrial operations, while gas production is also being cleaned up at a corporate level. And a Dutch court has imposed a requirement on major energy company Shell to reduce its carbon footprint at a faster rate than planned, although this ruling will be challenged.