Stable production of renewable electricity

In 2011 wind energy, hydro power, solar power and biomass produced 12 billion kWh of electricity. This is almost 10 percent of the Dutch consumption of electricity and close to the production in 2010. The production of windmills increased by 5 percent as capacity increased. Electricity production from biomass was about the same as in 2010.

Production of renewable electricity

More electricity from waste incineration

Nearly 60 percent of the production of renewable electricity comes from biomass. This involves the incineration of organic waste in waste incineration plants and adding biomass as fuel in power plants producing electricity, the production of electricity from biogas and other biomass incineration.

The production of renewable electricity by waste incineration plants increased by nearly 10 percent as new installations came into use. The electricity production through other biomass techniques decreased or stayed the same. In this area there were no major new installations and some installations operated less because of maintenance work, the high prices for oil and greasy biomass or the end of the MEP subsidy.

Production of renewable electricity from biomass

More wind in 2011 than in 2010

In 2010 the supply of wind was 23 percent below the long-term average. In 2011 there was also less wind for a fairly long time. In December 2011, however, there was a lot of wind. The electricity production from windmills increased to a monthly record of 850 million kWh and supplied over 7 percent of the electricity consumption of that month. For 2011 as a whole the wind supply was a few percent below the long-term average.

Supply of wind for wind energy

Reinoud Segers and Marco Wilmer