Renewable energy use, 1990-2023

Strong increase in renewable electricity production by wind and solar

Renewable electricity consumption increased by 15 percent in 2023 and accounted for about 46 percent of total electricity consumption (CBS, 2024b). This increase is largely driven by an increase in solar and wind power generation capacity. At 50 percent, wind is the largest contributor to renewable electricity generation, followed by solar power (36 percent) and biomass (13 percent). 

Normalized electricity production from wind showed a 25 percent increase in 2023. The main reason for this increase is the increase in installed capacity of wind turbines, mainly offshore. The total capacity of wind turbines went from 8,700 megawatts at the end of 2022 to 10,734 megawatts at the end of 2023.  See also indicator Wind energy capacity in the Netherlands.
Electricity production from biomass declined by 14 percent in 2023, mainly due to a decrease in co-firing biomass in coal-fired power plants and decentralized electricity production. 
The capacity of total solar panels increased by 23 percent to 21 275 megawatts. This produced 19.6 billion kWh of solar power in 2023. 

Increase in renewable heat

Renewable heat consumption increased by 4 percent to 86 petajoules in 2023. The main reason is the increase in heat production using aerothermal heat (+33 percent) and shallow geothermal energy (+11 percent) due to a growth in heat pump sales. The use of biomass for heat production decreased by 4 percent. Heat production from deep geothermal energy was the same in 2023 as in 2022.

Biofuel consumption increased

Biofuel consumption increased from 24 petajoules in 2022 to 26 petajoules in 2023 (CBS, 2024c). The share of renewable energy for transport increased to over 13 percent. This is about two percentage points more than in 2022. The main reason for the increase in the share of renewable energy for transport is the increase in the consumption of renewable electricity for transport, because electricity consumption for road transport is growing rapidly and also because the share of renewable electricity is growing rapidly.

Policy objective

The next target for the Netherlands in an EU context is 39 percent renewable energy in 2030 (European Commission, 2023) as the Dutch contribution to the binding EU-wide target of 42.5 percent renewable energy in 2030 (EU, 2023). In addition to a target for total renewable energy, there are also binding agreements on increasing the share of renewable heat for all EU member states. In the period 2021-2025, an annual growth of 0.8 percentage points must take place. For the period 2025-2030, this is 1.1 percentage point growth per year. 
Nationally, there was a target of 16 percent renewable energy by 2023 as part of the Energy Agreement (SER, 2013). In recent years, national policy for 2030 and beyond, as set out in the Climate Agreement (Rijksoverheid, 2019), has focused more on broader goals that reduce CO₂ emissions, to which the increase in renewable energy also contributes.

Avoiding the use of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions

An important aspect of the application of renewable energy sources is to reduce the use of fossil fuels and CO₂ emissions. The link below provides a time series from the StatLine database (CBS, 2024b) regarding the “reduction of fossil fuels” and the “reduction of CO₂ emissions” as a result of the use of renewable energy sources and a breakdown by renewable energy source / technology. 

European data

Figures on the share of renewable energy in other European countries can be accessed at SHARES and EurObserv’ER.