More and more renewable electricity generated by wind turbines

Generation of electricity by wind turbines grew by nearly 20 percent last year. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS) over half of total renewable electricity in 2015 was generated by wind turbines.

In 2015 13 billion kilowatts (KW) of electricity was generated (normalised) from renewable sources, i.e. approximately 11 percent of total Dutch electricity consumption, one percentage point more than last year. Apart from wind turbines, the contribution of hydropower and solar panels for renewable electricity generation also increased, but the contribution of these sources is still modest. The contribution of biomass as a source for renewable electricity generation remained stable.

More wind turbines account for higher production

Altogether, wind turbines accounted for a total of nearly 7 billion KW of electricity in 2015, about 20 percent more than in 2014. Offshore wind parks are becoming increasingly important, although onshore production is also growing substantially. The increase is mainly due to enhanced capacity (+ 18 percent to 3,400 MW). Onshore capacity grew by 380 MW to 3,000 MW; offshore capacity by 130 MW to 360 MW.

Total capacity wind turbines EU higher

According to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) total capacity of wind turbines in the European Union has grown from 129 GW in 2014 to 142 GW in 2015. A significant part of wind turbines are found in Germany (32 percent) and Spain (16 percent); the Netherlands accounts for more than 2 percent of total European wind turbine capacity.

The Netherlands: 0.2 kW per capita

If per capita capacity is taken into account, the list looks quite different. In that case, Denmark topped the list in 2015 with 0.9 KW per capita, followed by Sweden, Germany and Ireland with 0.5-0.6 KW per capita. The Netherlands occupies 11th place with 0.2 KW per capita.