Less electricity produced

Total electricity production in the Netherlands amounted to 113 billion kWh in 2011. This is 4 percent less than in the previous year. In the four preceding years, electricity production had risen each year.

Electricity production

Less electricity generated from fossil fuels

Just over 5 billion kWh less electricity was produced in 2011 than in 2010. This decrease was mainly accounted for by power stations generating electricity from fossil fuels and supplying it to the national grid. Overall, power stations produced 7 percent less electricity. This decrease was caused by higher fuel prices combined with a larger supply of both domestic renewable electricity and electricity from abroad. Total energy consumption increased slightly in 2011.

Fossil fuel input was also lower in the so-called decentral production of electricity, i.e. production of electricity supplied to regional networks or used by the energy producing companies themselves. The total decentral production of electricity remained at the same level, however, as a result of production of electricity from wind.

Higher production of renewable electricity

The production of renewable electricity rose by nearly 10 percent in 2011. This increase was caused completely by electricity generated from wind. The amount of wind electricity rose by more than a quarter in 2011. Alongside wind, biomass is the main source of renewable electricity in the Netherlands. The amount of electricity generated from biomass was about the same in 2011 as in 2010.

Electricity production from fossil and renewable sources

Less and less electricity from coal

The share of electricity generated from fossil fuels fell from 90.5 to 82.5 percent between 1998 and 2011. This decrease was mainly the result of a decrease in the amount of electricity produced from coal; the share of this electricity decreased from 28 percent in 1998 to 18 percent in 2011. The share of electricity produced from natural gas remained fairly stable, at around 60 percent.

Energy sources for electricity production

The decrease in the share of fossil electricity was caused mainly by the production of renewable electricity; the share of the latter rose from 2.5 percent in 1998 to nearly 11 percent in 2011. Production of electricity from wind and biomass in particular rose in this period.

Bart van Wezel and Jan Kloots