Renewable energy in the Netherlands

Despite the historic usage of wind power to drain water and grind grain, the Netherlands today lags behind most EU countries in the production of energy from renewable sources. The leading renewable sources in the country are biomass, wind, solar and both geothermal and aerothermal power (mostly from ground source and air source heat pumps). In 2014, the Netherlands produced only 5.5% of its total energy from renewables, a small rise from 3.7% in 2010 and just 1% in 1990.[1] Among the EU countries, only Malta and Luxembourg had lower percentages.[2]

The low take up of renewable energy may be partially explained by the flat and often sub-sea level landscape and subsequent limits to hydropower resources as well as little natural geothermal potential, although hydro poor resource countries such as Denmark have still managed to make renewables the focus of their energy needs. In 2015, Dutch wind turbines had a total nameplate capacity of 3,431 MW.[3] Most of the tiny contribution made to electricity generation by hydroelectricity came from three power plants.

A large part of the renewable electricity sold in the Netherlands comes from Norway, a country which generates almost all its electricity from hydropower plants. In the Netherlands, household consumers can choose to buy renewable electricity. Since 2008, the amount of renewable energy used by household users has been increasing, rising from 38% in 2008 to 41% by 2009. and up to 44% by mid 2010.[4]

One area in which the Netherlands is a relative leader is in the adoption of electric plug in vehicles. In 2015 PEV vehicles in the Netherlands represented 9.74% of car sales,[5] making it the world's second highest share after Norway. Electric vehicles are able to run on renewable electricity with zero emissions and have the potential to provide grid power storage facilities.[6]

An interesting source of heat recovery used in the Netherlands is sourced from freshly milked milk, or warm milk. However at 0.3% of total renewable energy production[1] (2010 figures) this source is not likely to accelerate energy transition in the country. Warm milk is still not mentioned in the EU Renewable Energy Directive, nor in international energy statistics and so is not included is gross final consumption figures. It does however provide Dutch farmers with plenty of hot water.

The Netherlands has a minimum target of 14% of renewable energy use by 2020. The sectoral targets for 2020 break down into national targets of 8.7% in the heating and cooling sector, 37% in the electricity sector and 10.3% in the transport sector although these figures may be slightly different from those implied by the minimum trajectory path.[7] The following table shows the actual results recorded of renewable energy use by sector:

Renewable energy by sector 2009-2014[8]
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Heating and cooling sector 3.4% 3.1% 3.7% 3.9% 4.1% 5.2%
Electricity sector 9.1% 9.6% 9.8% 10.4% 10.0% 10.0%
Transport sector 4.2% 3.0% 4.5% 4.5% 4.6% 5.7%
TOTAL 4.3% 3.9% 4.5% 4.7% 4.8% 5.5%

Actual overall renewable energy use grew from 4.3% in 2009 to 5.5% by 2014. The minimum trajectory planned for 2013-2014 was 5.9% and for 2015-2016 7.6% of total energy use. The Netherlands is regarded as amongst the most likely countries to miss 2020 national renewable energy targets as outlined by the Renewable Energy Directive.

Sources

Installed wind power in the Netherlands[9]
Year Cumulative capacity (in MW)
2001
481
2002
682
2003
908
2004
1,078
2005
1,224
2006
1,561
2007
1,749
2008
2,149
2009
2,225
2010
2,218
2011
2,272
2012
2,391
2013
2,713
2014
2,865
2015
3,431

Wind power

2015 was a record year for new wind turbine installations totalling 586 MW bringing the totalled installed capacity to 3,431 MW by year end. 180 MW of the new installations were offshore.[10] The Dutch government has a target of 6,000 MW of onshore wind power by 2020 and 4,450 MW of offshore wind power by 2023.[10]

In 2010, the Netherlands had 1973 wind turbines including 98 in two offshore windfarms. Flevoland was the leading province for wind energy with Groningen second in capacity and production.The wind capacity installed at end 2010 will, in a normal wind year, produced 4.1% of electricity, when the equivalent value for Germany was 9.4% and Portugal 14%.[11]

Solar power

By 2015 year end cumulative installed capacity of solar PV power reached a preliminary estimate of 1.57 GW with 450 MW added in that year alone.[12]

Biomass

Sources of biomass in the Netherlands include the biogenic fraction of waste that is burned in waste incineration plants. Waste wood is also collected for use in the Netherlands and other EU countries. Manure is used to produce biogas and wood pellets are co-fired in electricity plants. 590 kton of pellets were imported, mostly from the United States of America and around 140 kton from Dutch sources contributing 12 to 13 PJ of primary energy to co-firing in energy plants in 2013-2014. Biofuels are produced in the Netherlands for both domestic and export markets.[13]

Rapeseed and corn crops were hardly used in 2014 to produce biofuels in Holland with reasons cited being the high price of corn and resistance to using food crops for fuel production. Rapeseed is used for well over 1% of the imported biofuels (biodiesel) while corn is used for 11% (bioethanol). Germany was the largest supplier of rape seed in 2014 (53%), followed by Romania (13%). For corn the largest supplier in 2014 was Ukraine (39%), followed by France (24%). Some maize fodder is fermented for biofuel production in Holland.[13]

Biomass gross final consumption (TJ) by energy sector, 2013. (Data extract).[13]
Electricity Heat Transport Total
Waste incineration plants 7 473 11 053 18 526
Co-firing of biomass in power stations 6 531 417 6 948
Decentralised electricity production from solid biomass and bioliquid 3 904 1 436 5 340
Total biomass boilers for heating in businesses 5 474 5 474
- Wood-fired boilers for heating in businesses 4 038 4 038
- Non-wood-fired boilers for heating in businesses 1 436 1 436
Total biomass in domestic use 17 910 17 910
- Wood-burning stoves for domestic use 17 640 17 640
- Charcoal for domestic consumption 270 270
Total biogas 3 741 5 794 1 9 535
- Biogas from landfills 222 233 0 455
- Biogas from wastewater treatment plants 699 1 341 - 2 040
- Biogas, co-firing of manure 1 891 1 798 - 3 689
- Other biogas 929 2 422 1 3 351
Total liquid biofuels for transport *802 12 122 12 924
- Bioethanol 5 210 5 210
- Biodiesel *802 6 912 7 714
Total biomass 21 649 42 886 12 123 76 657
-

*The consumption of biofuels for mobile vehicles in the construction and farming sectors are assigned to the heat sector due to statistical definitions.

Biomass produced 76,657 TJ of energy for final consumption in 2013. The largest share was destined for the heat sector at 42,886TJ followed by the electricity sector at 21, 649T J and then the transport sector with 12,123TJ.

Warm milk

In 2010, 740,000 dairy cows (about half of the country's total) provided 277 TJ of heat energy avoiding 18,000 tons of CO2 emissions.[1] According to industry sources for every litre of milk cooled, 0.7 litres of warm water is produced. Water pumped through the plate heat exchanger reaches 50 °C to 55 °C. The energy recovered from 1000 litres of milk per day over a year generates heat equal to: 13,100 kWh of electrical energy, 1,900 litres of oil, 1,650 m³ of natural gas or 950 kg of propane gas.[14]

Climate change

According to the ex Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, the Netherlands use annually 1-1.5 billion € (0.3% of national income) to protect against the risks of the sea level rise. Many areas are under sea level in the Netherlands and are protected by dam and dikes.[15] The Netherlands supported in 2010 raising the European Union emission restrictions from 20% to 30%; however, the Netherlands has only committed to reaching the minimum 14% goal for itself.[1]

The main sources of renewable energy up to 2011 were from biomass and wind power. Solar power was marginal with only 143 MW installed capacity by 2011. Energy from hydroelectric sources in 2011 was only marginally greater than that provided from heat extracted from warm milk.

Renewable energy in the Netherlands (by source, in TWh) [1][16]
Type 1990 1995 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Biomass 5.64 6.19 7.11 11.7 12.6 14.9 16.1 18.6 17.8 19.1
Wind 0.06 0.31 0.75 2.03 2.54 3.17 3.93 4.48 4.50 4.73
Geothermal 0 0 0.06 0.2 0.2 0.31 0.44 0.53 0.67 0.78
Aerothermal 0 0 0.03 0.1 0.2 0.25 0.33 0.44 0.53 0.64
Solar 0.03 0.06 0.1 0.25 0.25 0.28 0.28 0.31 0.33 0.39
Hydro 0.09 0.09 0.10 0.10 0.10 0.10 0.10 0.10 0.10 0.10
Warm milk* NA 0.040 0.046 0.051 0.051 0.057 0.065 0.072 0.077 0.082
RE % = (production of RE / use) * 100% Note: Rounding errors may be present due to conversion from original source reported in PJ, European Union calculates the share of renewable energies in gross electrical consumption.
Warm milk represent heat recovered from fresh milk during cooling by heat exchange.

Total renewable energy use was just 1.1% of overall energy use in 1990. The electricity sector first overtook the heating and cooling sector in 2005 in terms of total renewable energy use.

Renewable energy in the Netherlands (by use, in TWh) [1]
1990 1995 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Electricity 0.81 1.4 2.86 7.44 7.86 7.33 9.22 10.8 11.7
Heat 5.00 5.25 5.28 6.86 7.56 8.08 8.67 9.36 9.61
Transport 0 0 0 0.03 0.50 3.61 3.33 4.33 2.67
Total 5.81 6.69 8.17 14.3 15.9 19.0 21.2 24.5 24.0
Renewable percent of
total use 		1.1% 1.2% 1.4% 2.3% 2.6% 3.1% 3.4% 4.1% 3.7%
Note: Rounding errors may be present due to conversion from original source reported in PJ

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Renewable energy in the Netherlands.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Renewable Energy in the Netherlands 2010, Statistics Netherlands, 2010
  2. ↑ Netherlands lagging behind most EU countries on renewable energy, NL Times, Janene Pieters, March 31, 2016
  3. ↑ Wind in power: 2015 European statistics, Wind Europe, accessed May 29, 2016
  4. ↑ "Autoriteit Consument & Markt" (PDF).
  5. ↑ Cobb, Jeff (2016-01-18). "Top Six Plug-in Vehicle Adopting Countries – 2015". HybridCars.com. Retrieved 2016-02-12. About 520,000 highway legal light-duty plug-in electric vehicles were sold worlwide in 2015, with cumulative global sales reaching 1,235,000. Plug-in hybrids represent about 40% of global plug-in electric vehicle sales. The United States is the leading market with 411,120 units sold since 2008, followed by China with 258,328 units sold since 2011. Japan ranks third, followed by the Netherlands (88,991), Norway (77,897), France (74,291), and the UK (53,254). Over 21,000 units were sold in Japan in 2015.
  6. ↑ "Goedkoopste energie? Kies de goedkoopste energieleverancier. Gratis!". Energievergelijking.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  7. ↑ "The Netherlands, National Renewable Energy Action Plan. pg. 27.".
  8. ↑ "Progress report, Energy from renewable sources in the Netherlands 2013–2014".
  9. ↑ GWEC Global Wind Report 2015
  10. 1 2 "GLOBAL WIND REPORT 2015 | GWEC". www.gwec.net. Retrieved 2016-08-11.
  11. ↑ Wind in power 2010 European statistics EWEA February 2011 page 11
  12. ↑ "IEA, A Snapshot of Global PV Markets 2015." (PDF).
  13. 1 2 3 "2015 Progress Report, Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.".
  14. ↑ "DeLaval.com".
  15. ↑ Alankomaissa sata miljardia euroa kuluu merenpinnan nousun estämiseen yle 03.09.2008
  16. ↑ Renewable Energy in the Netherlands 2011, Statistics Netherlands, 2012
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.