Consumption of biofuels for transport

Within the scope of the renewable energy statistic, CBS defines the consumption of biofuels for transport as sustainable biofuels that have been physically introduced to the market. The Dutch Emission Authority (NEa), too, reports on sustainable biofuels put on the Dutch market. This concerns the quantities supplied by companies in accordance with the rules for Renewable Energy Transport. These quantities may deviate from the quantities reported by CBS. Reasons for these variations may include the following:

- Legislation on Renewable Energy Transport (REV) offers the option to include not only biofuels that are delivered directly to the Dutch transport sector but in addition biofuels delivered to other Dutch fuel suppliers. These other suppliers may then deliver the biofuels to the Dutch market, transfer them to another supplier, or export them. As of reporting year 2018, legislation has been adjusted in order to ensure that biofuels counting towards the obligation are indeed physically put on the market.

- REV legislation offers the option to claim extra deliveries of biofuels in their administration of the consecutive year. CBS does not include such postponed registrations.

- REV legislation offers the option to include green gas by combining physical supply of natural gas to transport with administrative supply via green gas certificates from the Netherlands. CBS calculates the supply of green gas to transport by multiplying the total supply of natural gas to transport by the share of green gas in the gas supply. The share of green gas in the total gas supply is calculated by dividing the total injection of green gas into the gas grid by the total natural gas consumption in the Netherlands.

CBS calculates the total volume of biofuels placed on the market by combining data from the Dutch Emissions Authority (NEa) with data coming directly from oil companies. It is difficult to collect accurate information on the physical destination of biofuels. CBS figures on biofuels physically put on the market therefore have an estimated uncertainty of around 15 percent. More information on the method and definitions used in the biofuel statistic can be found in the report Renewable Energy in the Netherlands 2015, sections 2.4 and 8.11 (Dutch only).