Energy savings in the Netherlands, 2000 - 2010

National energy savings

Energy savings in the Netherlands totalled an average of 1.1% a year between 2000 and 2010, with a 95% probability margin of 0.3 percentage points. The energy savings were calculated using the Protocol Monitoring Energy Savings in the Netherlands. The financial crisis in 2008 clearly had a negative effect on the energy saving rate. Lower capacity utilisation in industry resulted in the less efficient use of energy, and fewer investments were made in new, usually more efficient, equipment. An energy saving rate of 1.2% was reached in 2007, but in 2009 the average had fallen to 1.0% a year. If savings had not been made after 2000, the energy consumption in 2010 would have been about 11% higher than the actual consumption.

Energy saving rate by sector

Savings made in homes and industry were just above the national average. Energy savings in the transport sector were lower, but showed an upwards trend after 2008. Savings in the agriculture and horticulture sector were significantly higher than the national average. Savings from combined heat and power (CHP) at the end user did increase after 2004, in particular in horticulture, but there was little increase in combined heat and power at the end user towards the end of the monitoring period. It was not possible to determine the savings in the services sector, due to the large uncertainty in the energy statistics. Although conversion efficiency did increase slightly in electricity power stations and more CHP was used in district heating, hardly any savings were made in the energy sector compared with 2000.