Renewable electricity; production and capacity
Explanation of symbols
Table explanation
This table contains information about the Dutch production of renewable electricity, the number of installations used and the installed capacity of these installations. During production, a distinction is made between normalised gross production and non-standard gross and net production without normalisation.
Production of electricity is shown in million kilowatt hours and as a percentage of total electricity consumption in the Netherlands. The production of renewable electricity is compared with total electricity consumption and not against total electricity production. This choice is due to European conventions.
The data is broken down according to the type of energy source and the technique used to obtain the electricity. A distinction is made between four main categories: hydro power, wind energy, solar power and biomass.
Data available from: 1990.
Status of the figures:
This table contains definite figures until 2021, revised provisional figures for 2022 and 2023.
Changes as of June 7th 2024:
Revised provisional figures of 2023 have been added.
Changes as of March 7th 2024:
Provisional figures of 2023 have been added. The gross electricity production with normalisation (according to RED II) is not yet known for some forms of biomass for 2023. When this applies a "." is displayed.
RED II refers to the EU renewable energy directive which came into force in 2021.
Changes as of November 14th 2023:
Figures of 2021 and 2022 have been updated. The status for figures of 2021 is now definite and the status for figures of 2022 is revised provisional.
Figures of 2015-2020 have been revised in other tables on electricity. This revision has not been implemented in this table, as a result of which inconsitensies of (max) 80 GWh on a yearly basis are possible between the figures for biomass.
When will new figures be published?
Provisional figures on electricity output for the previous year are published each year in February. Revised provisional figures on electricity output for the previous year are published each year in June. Definite figures on electricity output for the previous year are published each year in December.
Description topics
- Production of electricity
- Domestic production of renewable electricity in millions of kilowatt hours.
- Gross production with normalisation
- Gross production of renewable electricity corrected for weather conditions and including the indirect production from green gas. As of reporting year 2021, electricity production from solid and gaseous biomass used in installations above a specific power threshold will only be taken into account if the biomass used meets the new sustainability criteria as stated in the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED II).
Gross production is the production including own use. Own use is the electricity that is used in electricity output.
The normalised production has been calculated according to definitions from the EU Renewable Energy Directive. The binding targets from this guideline play an important role in Dutch energy policy. The production without normalisation is the actual physical production according to definitions from the standard national and international energy statistics.
There are three differences between the normalised figures and the figures without normalisation:
1. Correction for accidental weather conditions.
2. Whether or not to include production of electricity from green gas.
3. Wheter or not to include biomass that is not compliant according to RED II.
Further explanation for 1: The normalised production in a given year is calculated as the capacity in the relevant year times the average production per unit capacity in the past five years (for wind energy) or fifteen years (for hydro-power). The production of solar power is in principle also dependent on the weather. In the EU Directive, however, it has been agreed not to apply normalisation for solar power.
Further explanation for 2: Green gas is biogas that has been upgraded to natural gas quality and injected into the natural gas network. A (small) part of the production of electricity from natural gas can thus be allocated to green gas. This allocation has been included in the normalised production of electricity; this allocation is not taken into account in production of electricity without normalisation.
Further explanation for 3: As of reporting year 2021, electricity production from solid and gaseous biomass used in installations above a specific power threshold will only be taken into account if the biomass used meets the new sustainability criteria as stated in the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED II).
- Production without normalisation
- Production of renewable electricity-, not corrected for weather conditions and excluding the indirect production from green gas.
Green gas is biogas that has been upgraded to natural gas quality and injected into the natural gas network. A (small) part of the production of electricity from natural gas can thus be allocated to green gas. This allocation has been included in the normalised production of electricity; this allocation is not taken into account in production of electricity without normalisation.- Gross production of electricity
- Gross production of electricity is the production including own use.
Own use is the electricity that is used in electricity output.
- Net production of electricity
- Net production of electricity is the production excluding own use.
Own use is the electricity that is used in electricity output.
- Production of electricity relative
- Domestic production of renewable electricity as a percentage of total domestic electricity consumption.
The production of renewable electricity is compared with total electricity consumption and not against total electricity production. This choice is due to European conventions.- Gross production with normalisation
- Gross production of renewable electricity corrected for weather conditions and including the indirect production from green gas.
Gross production is the production including own use. Own use is the electricity that is used in electricity output.
The normalized production has been calculated according to definitions from the EU Renewable Energy Directive from 2009. The binding targets from this guideline play an important role in Dutch energy policy. The production without normalisation is the actual physical production according to definitions from the standard national and international energy statistics.
There are two differences between the normalized figures and the figures without normalisation:
1. Correction for accidental weather conditions
2. Whether or not to include production of electricity from green gas.
Further explanation for 1: The normalized production in a given year is calculated as the capacity in the relevant year times the average production per unit capacity in the past five years (for wind) or fifteen years (for hydro power). The production of solar power is in principle also dependent on the weather. In the EU Directive, however, it has been agreed not to apply normalization for solar power.
Further explanation for 2: Green gas is biogas that has been upgraded to natural gas quality and injected into the natural gas network. A (small) part of the production of electricity from natural gas can thus be allocated to green gas. This allocation has been included in the normalized production of electricity; this allocation is not taken into account in production of electricity without normalisation.
- Production without normalisation
- Production of renewable electricity, not corrected for weather conditions and excluding the indirect production from green gas.
Green gas is biogas that has been upgraded to natural gas quality and injected into the natural gas network. A (small) part of the production of electricity from natural gas can thus be allocated to green gas. This allocation has been included in the normalized production of electricity; this allocation is not taken into account in production of electricity without normalisation.- Gross production of electricity
- Gross production of electricity is the production including own use.
Own use is the electricity that is used in electricity output.
- Net production of electricity
- Net electricity production is the production excluding own use.
Own use is the electricity that is used in electricity output.
- Installed installations
- Installations, installed at the end of the reporting year.
- Installations installed end of year
- Number of installations installed at the end of the reporting year.
- Electrical capacity end of year
- Electrical capacity of installations installed at the end of the reporting year.
Electrical capacity is the amount of electricity that can be generated per unit of time during normal use of all available installations that produce electricity.