Green energy use creeps up marginally, EU targets a long way off

The Netherlands used 2% more energy last year but the proportion of sustainable energy rose just 0.3 percentage point to 5.8%, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

This means the Netherlands is still a long way off its European target of 14% green energy by 2020.

The increase is largely due to solar wind and geothermal energy, the CBS said, and the use of biomass – household waste and organic matter – has hardly gone up. Nevertheless, biomass still accounts for 80% of the sustainable energy used in the Netherlands.

A third of the European countries which signed up for the sustainable energy agreement have already reached their targets. Top renewable energy user is Sweden (53%), where hydro electric power accounts for over 16% of energy usage.

The CBS said last year the poor Dutch performance is due in part to its geographical position, which means hydro-electric power is not an option.

There is also less government support for alternative energy sources compared to countries like Germany and Denmark, the CBS said.