Netherlands

Key facts

Netherlands is 18% electrified. [1]

The Netherlands produces 123 843 GWh a year, and exports 3.4% of its production.

The Dutch electricity to gas price ratio is 2.1 for industry and 1.2 for households. [2]

The Netherlands electricity mix is split between
  • Natural Gas
  • Wind
  • Solar PV
  • Coal
  • Biofuels
  • Nuclear
  • Waste
  • Other

Current state of electrification

Residential buildings in Netherlands

Buildings

  • Buildings account for 57% of electricity consumption in the Netherlands (disaggregated in 21% residential, and 36,6% commercial and public services) [3]
  • Space heating alone makes up over 70% of residential end-use, and natural gas supplies 84% of that heating demand (electricity just 3%). [4]
  • Heat pumps have about 7.8% of the heating cooling market share with 679,000 heat pumps installed in Dutch homes [5]
  • 2023 was a remarkable year for heat pump sales but heat pump sales fell by more than half in Q1 2024 versus Q1 2023, reversing the growth trend of the 2022-23 energy-price-crisis [6]

Industry

  • Industry is the single largest electricity consuming sector at 31,4% of final electricity [7] [8] [9]
    • Chemical and petrochemical industry: 14 to 16 TWh | 38% to 42% of industrial electricity
    • Food, beverage, and tobacco: 7 to 8.5 TWh | 19% to 22% of industrial electricity
    • Basic metals and metal processing: 4.5 to 5.5 TWh | 12% to 15% of industrial electricity
    • Machinery, electrical equipment, and transport manufacturing: 3 to 4 TWh | 8% to 11% of industrial electricity
Transport — from the design

Transport

Sources [10]

  • Electricity accounted for only 3% of transport energy demand. The overwhelming majority of cars on Dutch roads are still gasoline cars, and almost the entirety of freight transport relies on diesel.
  • The total number of vehicles comes from Statistics Netherlands [11]
  • The electric fleet is composed of:
  • 701 149 cars (+ 77 099 year on year) — this represents 7.75% of the ~9.05 million passenger cars on Dutch roads
  • 56 153 light commercial vehicles (+ 9 850 year on year) — this represents roughly 5.51% of the ~1.02 million light commercial vehicles (vans) on Dutch roads
  • 2920 buses (+531 year on year) — this represents roughly 53.09% of the ~5 500 public service and transit buses on Dutch roads
  • 5592 trucks (+1 412 year on year) — this represents roughly 3.39% of the ~165 000 heavy commercial trucks and road tractors on Dutch roads
  • 127 144 light vehicles (+1 570 year on year) ) — this represents roughly 6.69% of the ~1.9 million motorcycles, mopeds, and light vehicles under 4 wheels on Dutch roads

Grid and flexibility

Transmission & Distribution

A five-fold increase in solar PV capacity between 2018 and 2023, mostly rooftop, encouraged by net-metering that pays owners the same price regardless of grid conditions, causes important grid congestion in the Netherlands [12]
~15,000 large applications are on the waiting list, housing and industrial projects included. Small consumers who were previously connected without delay, are now being added to the same waiting list as large users, following an ACM ruling that it was unfair for them to be treated differently. [13] [14] [15]
In 2025, TenneT (the Dutch TSO) spent €14.8 billion to manage congestion and accelerate grid growth. Household grid fees already run about €300/year, and the TenneT portion alone (~€70) is set to nearly double to €132. [16] [17] [18]
The government’s main fix is the National Grid Congestion Action Programme (LAN), launched December 2022, focused on faster grid construction, smarter use of existing capacity, and better data on what’s happening on the grids. [19]
The regulator ACM is pushing non-firm connection contracts and new tariff structures, letting large users get connected sooner in exchange for accepting curtailment during peak hours. [20]

Storage

Total installed battery storage capacity in the Netherlands around 2.9 GWX. (115% increase from 2024 to 2025) [21]
The capacity is projected to reach 36.8 GWh by 2030 (14.6 GWh residential, 12.1 GWh commercial/industrial, 10.1 GWh utility-scale) [22]

Smart meters

Over 90% of Dutch households have smart meters installed [23]

Support schemes

Electric Vehicles (EVs)
AanZET [24]

Tiered grant covering part of the purchase-cost gap vs. a diesel equivalent, scaled by vehicle weight class.

Purchase of new zero-emission trucks only (not retrofits); applicant must be a registered business; vehicle must remain registered in NL for a minimum holding period.

SPRILA / SPULA [25]

Partial reimbursement of charging-infrastructure installation cost

SPRILA: private/company premises charging points only; SPULA: publicly accessible charging points for heavy vehicles specifically – must be open-access, not restricted to a single fleet

Heat Pumps & Residential Upgrades
ISDE [26]

Base amount (~€1,025) + €225/kW + up to €200–1,000 energy-label bonus; minimum guaranteed €500

Home must have been built before 1 January 2019; heat pump must appear on RVO’s approved product list; as of 2026, split units with refrigerant charge <3kg and GWP >750 are excluded; limited to one application per address every 3 years; apply only after installation, within 24 months.

National Heat Fund (Warmtefonds) [27]

Subsidised loan, stackable on top of the ISDE grant

Available only to households below a set income threshold; loan must fund a sustainability measure (heat pump, insulation) specifically, not general renovation

Buildings
Municipal Sustainability Scheme [28]

100% of cost fronted upfront, recovered via a tax levy over 30 years

Only available in participating municipalities; a certified inspector must first assess and approve the specific package of measures before work begins

SVOH - Sustainability and Maintenance of Rental Homes [29]

Grant toward insulation/heat-pump retrofit cost

For private individuals renting out homes – the Dutch equivalent to Germany’s landlord-passthrough mechanism, but structured as a landlord-side grant rather than a tenant rent-cap

SVVE - Homeowners' Association Sustainability Subsidy [30]

Grant toward retrofit cost

For housing associations (VvEs) and homeowners’ associations specifically – addresses the split-incentive problem in apartment blocks

Industrial & Business Electrification
EIA - Energy Investment Allowance [31]

Deduct 40% of investment cost from taxable profit (rising to 45.5% from 1 Jan 2027, pending parliamentary approval)

Asset must be on RVO’s annual “Energy List”; cannot be combined with SDE++/MIA on the same investment; must hold the asset ≥5 years or repay a share via disinvestment surcharge

MIA / Vamil - Environmental Investment Allowance & Random Depreciation [32]

MIA: deduct 27-45% of cost from taxable profit; Vamil: freely choose when to depreciate 75% of the investment

Cannot combine MIA with EIA on the same asset (Vamil can stack with either); asset must appear on the government’s Environmental List; must retain asset ≥3 years and pay ≥25% within 12 months, or repay

VEKI (subsidy to accelerate industrial climate investments) [33]

Project-based grant

Aimed specifically at accelerating industrial investments that reduce CO2 faster than the default policy timeline

DEI+ (subsidy for testing innovative low-carbon techniques) [34]

Project-based grant, not a fixed rate

For pilot/demonstration-scale projects not yet commercially viable – a bridge between R&D and SDE++ eligibility

Targets

Buildings

  • The government wants 1 million hybrid heat pumps installed by 2030, funded mainly through the ISDE subsidy.
  • 2.5 million homes are to be insulated by 2030, starting with the worst-insulated homes first.
  • 500,000 existing homes are targeted to connect to district heating by 2030 (approx: 80,000 new connections per year)
  • 120,000 non-residential buildings (offices, shops, public buildings) are targeted for sustainability upgrades by 2030, aiming to cut 1 million tonnes of CO2 through relatively low-cost fixes like better system tuning and heat recovery.
  • The long-term 2050 goal: 7 million homes and 1 million other buildings off natural gas entirely, with the 1.5 million buildings switched by 2030 as the first milestone toward that.
  • The government’s own 2025 outlook expects renewables to reach only 30–37% of final energy use by 2030, short of the 39% the EU expects from the Netherlands, a target the government’s own dashboard admits it’s not on track to meet. [35]

Transport

  • 100% of new passenger car sales have to be zero-emission by 2030 – deliverable via either battery-electric (BEV) or hydrogen fuel-cell (FCEV) cars. (It’s a policy ambition not a car selling ban Note: this is a policy ambition, not an enacted sales ban (a binding ban)
  • 30% CO2 cut in hinterland/continental freight transport by 2030, via logistics-hub optimisation outside city centres.
  • 27 PJ of renewable fuels in transport by 2030 – the government states it is on track for this specific target.
  • Zero-emission logistics zones in 28 cities plus Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam), phased in 2025-2030. [36]

Industry

  • Industry’s specific carbon budget: a reduction from ~35 Mt (2021) down to 19 Mt by 2030 for the 15 largest industrial emitters alone, a 16 Mt reduction, delivered through individual “maatwerk” (custom/tailored) agreements the government negotiates company-by-company (three additional mid-sized companies Alco, FrieslandCampina, and Cosun have since been added to this custom-agreement track)
  • Industry is the only sector where emissions reduction is legally secured – via the national CO2 levy (heffing) – not just a policy ambition
  • Since 1990, industry has already cut 33 Mt of emissions; the current project pipeline aims for a further 18.5 Mt by 2030, though only 14.9 Mt of that is “fairly certain”, the remaining 3.7 Mt are contingent on infrastructure, subsidies, and permits materialising in time. [37]

Gaps and Challenges

Grid bottlenecks & network capacity: Designed for a centralised, fossil-fuel system, the Dutch grid can’t keep up with distributed solar, EV charging, heat pumps, and industrial demand growing at once. The connection queue keeps climbing from ~10,000 large users in 2024 to ~15,000 by 2026. Building a single substation now takes 10–12 years, mostly permitting and land acquisition rather than construction. TenneT invested €14.8 billion in transmission in 2025 alone, showing capital isn’t the constraint but execution is.

Permitting delays reach beyond the grid: Offshore wind faces the same bottleneck, the Hollandse Kust West projects, due in late 2025, are now expected only by mid-2027, hit by both permitting complexity and rising global costs (turbine prices +22% since 2022).

Rising costs are hitting consumers and industry directly: Household energy prices rose ~18% between 2025 and early 2026 (to ~€2,150/year), driven partly by the grid investment meant to fix the problem. For heavy industry, high electricity costs combined with uncertain grid access are now cited as a factor in companies delaying or reconsidering investment in the Netherlands.

Policy retreat on building electrification: The IEA flags that recent moves: cutting the natural gas tax and scrapping the mandatory heat pump requirement on boiler replacement, risk working against the government’s own targets.

Speed vs. safeguards: The EU’s 2025 Grids Package pushes 2-year permitting deadlines to unblock projects like these, but environmental groups warn this shouldn’t come at the cost of weakening nature-protection and public-participation rules, a tension likely to keep resurfacing through the decade.

Assessment

Buildings

At risk

The 1-million-hybrid-heat-pump target is now working against the grain: heat pump sales fell by half in 2024, and the government scrapped its planned mandate requiring one at boiler replacement. District heating expansion has effectively stalled after ownership-structure disputes paused ~90% of networks under construction. ISDE subsidies remain solid, but policy signals have weakened rather than strengthened.

Transport

At risk

The Netherlands has one of the highest EV market shares in Europe (43.5% of new sales), but momentum has reversed, the only major market alongside Sweden posting negative year-on-year BEV growth (-18.7%) in 2026. The national purchase subsidy (SEPP/SEBA) has ended entirely with no replacement, leaving only tax incentives. The 100% zero-emission sales target for 2030 remains a policy ambition rather than an enacted ban.

Industry

At risk

Just four subsectors: chemicals, refining, steel, and fertilizers, account for 81% of industrial energy use, and decarbonisation here leans heavily on CCS and hydrogen rather than direct electrification. Industry is the only sector with a legally-secured reduction target (via the CO2 levy), aiming for a 16 Mt cut from its 15 largest emitters by 2030 -but over half of pipeline projects cite financing as an unresolved blocker, and only 10% face no obstacle at all.

Power system

At risk

Generation hit a record 132 TWh in 2025, with renewables covering ~49% and the country remaining a net electricity exporter for a fourth consecutive year. Yet power-sector CO2 emissions actually rose in 2025 as coal and gas generation rebounded alongside renewables growth, a genuine reversal. Offshore wind’s 2040 ambition has already been downgraded from 50 GW to 30-40 GW, even as the 2032 and 2050 targets remain formally in place.

Grids

Lacking

The Netherlands is the IEA’s lead international case study for grid congestion. Nearly the entire country is congested for new connections, with the waiting list climbing from ~10,000 large users in 2024 to roughly 15,000 by 2026 – and small consumers are being added to the same queue from July 2026. Building a single substation takes 10-12 years, mostly spent on permitting rather than construction, despite TenneT investing €14.8 billion in transmission in 2025 alone.

Policy framework

At risk

The Netherlands has a legally binding 55% emissions-reduction target for 2030, but the government’s own environmental agency now rates its achievement at under 5% probability, prompting a new Climate Plan (2025-2035) with a 90%-by-2040 interim goal. Recent moves – cutting the natural gas tax, scrapping the heat pump mandate – have been flagged by the IEA itself as working against the country’s own targets, even as a new Crisis Act on Grid Congestion attempts to accelerate the sector’s biggest physical bottleneck.

  1. 1IEA, “country profile Netherlands", accessible here.
  2. 2European Commission, “Electrification Action Plan”, accessible here.
  3. 3IEA, “country profile Netherlands", accessible here.
  4. 4IEA, “Netherlands 2024”, accessible here.
  5. 5EHPA, “Market Intelligence - Netherlands”, accessible here.
  6. 6IEA, “Netherlands 2024”, accessible here.
  7. 7IEA, “country profile Netherlands", accessible here.
  8. 8Basic metals here includes non-ferrous metals such as aluminium, an electricity-intensive process, alongside iron and steel, and CBS counts blast-furnace coal as a transformation input rather than final consumption, both of which push this figure above what steelmaking alone would show
  9. 9Source for all sub-sector numbers: Statline, “Energy Balance sheet; supply and consumption, sector”, accessible here
  10. 10Alternative Fuel Observatory, “Netherlands”, here.
  11. 11Statistics Netherlands, “Traffic and transport”, accessible here
  12. 12IEA, “Grid congestion is posing challenges for energy security and transitions”, here
  13. 13Nova Cell, “Netcongestie 2026. 15.000 bedrijven op de wachtlijst. U hoeft niet te wachten”, here
  14. 14Esri Nederland, “Data Partnersinenergie”, accessible here
  15. 15Ondernemen.nl “Netcongestie”, accessible here
  16. 16TenneT, “EUR 14.8 billion in grid investments mark major step up as need to further accelerate grows.”, accessible here.
  17. 17IEA, “Netherlands 2024”, accessible here.
  18. 18IEA, “Netherlands 2024”, accessible here.
  19. 19IEA, “Grid congestion is posing challenges for energy security and transitions”, here
  20. 20IEA, “Grid congestion is posing challenges for energy security and transitions”, here
  21. 21PV Magazine, “Residential installations lead Dutch storage boom”, here
  22. 22PV Magazine, “Residential installations lead Dutch storage boom”, here
  23. 23IEA, “Netherlands 2024”, accessible here.
  24. 24Netherlands enterprise Agency, "Zero emission truck purchase subsidy", accessible here Info here
  25. 25Business.gov.nl, “Subsidy for private charging stations”, accessible here Info here
  26. 26Netherlands Enterprise Agency, “Investment subsidy for sustainable energy and energy and energy savings”, accessible here Info here
  27. 27ING, “Need financing to make your home sustainable”, accessible here Info here
  28. 28IEA, “Netherlands 2024”, accessible here.
  29. 29Netherlands Enterprise Agency, “Subsidy Scheme for the Sutainability and Maintenance of Rental Homes”, accessible here. Info here
  30. 30Netherlands Enterprise Agency, “Sustainability subsidy scheme for home-owners’ associations”, accessible here. Info here
  31. 31Business.gov.nl, “Energy Investment Allowance”, accessible here. Info here
  32. 32Business.gov.nl, “Tax schemes for environmentally friendly investments”, accessible here Info here
  33. 33Business.gov.nl, “Accelerated climate investments industry”, accessible here Info here
  34. 34Business.gov.nl, “Subsidy Demonstration Energy Innovation (DEI+)”, accessible here. Info here
  35. 35Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, “Dashboardklimaatbeleid Gewouwde ”, accessible here.
  36. 36Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, “Dashboardklimaatbeleid Mobiliteit”, accessible here.
  37. 37Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, “Dashboardklimaatbeleid Industrie”, accessible here.