Renewable energy use, 1990-2025

Increase in renewable electricity production, mainly from solar 

Renewable electricity consumption increased by 10 percent in 2025 and accounted for 55 percent of the total electricity consumption (CBS, 2026b). This increase can largely be attributed to the sunny weather in 2025. At 50 percent, wind is the largest contributor to renewable electricity generation, followed by solar power (39 percent) and biomass (10 percent). 
The total capacity of solar panels increased by 5 percent to 25,901 megawatts. This produced 25.9 billion kWh of solar power in 2025. . For more information see indicator Wind energy capacity.
Normalized electricity production from wind showed a 4 percent increase in 2025. This increase is smaller than in previous years. Few new wind turbines were added in 2025.
Electricity production from biomass increased by 9 percent in 2025, mainly due to an increase in co-firing of biomass in coal-fired power plants.  

Increase in renewable heat and cooling

Renewable energy consumption for heating and cooling increased from 101 to 119 petajoules in 2025 (CBS, 2026c). This growth is primarily driven by the use of renewable electricity for heating and cooling, which, since 2025, may be counted as renewable heating and cooling in accordance with the definitions set out in the EU’s revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED III). Aerothermal heat, both shallow and deep geothermal energy and renewable cooling also showed an increase in 2025. Approximately the same amount of biomass was used for heating applications as in 2024.

Biofuel consumption increased

Biofuel consumption for transport increased from 42 petajoules in 2024 to 55 petajoules in 2025 (CBS, 2026d). The share of renewable energy for transport was 17.9 percent in 2025. 29 petajoules of biodiesel were consumed for transport in 2025, a decrease of 17% compared with the previous year. Consumption of biokerosene increased to 14 petajoules, more than two and a half times the level recorded a year earlier. Consumption of biogasoline remained unchanged at 11 petajoules.

Policy objective

The next target for the Netherlands in an EU context is 39 percent renewable energy in 2030 (European Commission, 2023) as the Dutch contribution to the binding EU-wide target of 42.5 percent renewable energy in 2030 (EU, 2023). In addition to a target for total renewable energy, there are also binding agreements on increasing the share of renewable heat for all EU member states. In the period 2021-2025, an annual growth of 0.8 percentage points must take place. For the period 2025-2030, this is 1.1 percentage point growth per year. 

Avoiding the use of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions

An important aspect of the application of renewable energy sources is to reduce the use of fossil fuels and CO₂ emissions. The link below provides a time series from the StatLine database (CBS, 2026e) regarding the reduction of fossil fuels and the reduction of CO₂ emissions as a result of the use of renewable energy sources and a breakdown by renewable energy source / technology.

European data

Figures on the share of renewable energy in other European countries can be accessed at Eurostat (2026a,b) and EurObserv’ER (2025).