Soaring curtailment, subsidy losses and collapsing capture rates are hammering returns.

As the renewable energy transition progresses, new technology is quickly enabling an additional demographic of energy consumers to take part in the decarbonisation of electricity production, like those living in urban apartment spaces. European countries such as Germany, Austria and France are already seeing substantial growth in the installation of plug-in solar devices fitted to balconies, garages and sheds.

Operators of Dutch solar farms are “struggling financially” amid a surge in negative power prices – up as much as 70% year on year – subsidies failing to keep pace and a saturated grid, industry observers told Montel.

The Netherlands’ energy imports have risen to a record high since it closed Europe’s largest onshore gas field in Groningen last year, Dutch statistics office CBS has said.

The outlook for the European TTF gas market will remain tight into the winter months – with a “nail-biting” season expected – as weak gas storage levels add to bullish prices risks, an Engie analyst has said.

Energy industry participants raised concerns on Tuesday of potential setbacks to offshore wind projects after the exit of one of the government's coalition parties.

Construction work has started on a 300 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) in the Netherlands after developer Giga Storage agreed financing of EUR 300m, the company said.

Spain’s goal to build 3GW of floating offshore wind by 2030 is now unattainable because of a protracted delay to the country’s first ever tender. Some developers, including Ferrovial and Equinor, have already scrapped early-stage projects totalling more than 3GW, as investment conditions remain uncertain due to a lack of clarity on auction terms.

The Netherlands is facing increased risk of blackouts from 2033 onwards unless the government promotes investments in battery storage and demand-side response mechanisms, Dutch TSO Tennet has said.

(Montel) Niels van der Linden adjusts his sunglasses in the midday sun on a spring day as he strolls along one of his company’s solar farms near Utrecht, in the centre of the Netherlands. Like most of the country’s roughly 28 GW of solar photovoltaic capacity, the farm’s 46,000 solar units are producing green electrons at full speed, dragging the Dutch intraday power price at that very moment below EUR -50/MWh.

(Montel) The government of the Netherlands and the country’s oil and gas association Element NL have agreed on measures aimed at squeezing another 65bcm of gas out of the Dutch North Sea.

Dutch grid operator Tennet can make an additional 9.1 GW in power network capacity available during off-peak hours using a new type of flexible contract.

The offshore wind industry has welcomed a recent promise by Dutch minister for climate and green growth Sophie Hermans to implement a Contracts for Difference (CfD) mechanism aimed at improving conditions for new projects.

European demand for heat pumps was insatiable during the energy crisis that started in 2022, with manufacturers investing billions of euros in new production facilities to help energy consumers replace fossil fuel boilers. Although sustainable heating goals remain in place, the market has truly cooled down. Nowhere has this been more pronounced than in the Netherlands, which was one of the fastest-growing heat pump markets during the energy crisis. Energy journalist Karolin Schaps investigates the reasons behind the drop in heat pump demand and what it could mean for Europe’s sustainability and energy security targets.

The pursuit of climate justice is gaining significant momentum in the courts. Global Insight assesses whether – given the sudden backlash against climate action – this can continue.

Splitting any of the European electricity markets into smaller zones would have unintended consequences for power prices and would weigh on liquidity, Epex Spot has warned.

The percentage of trade orders submitted by computer applications on the Epex Spot continuous intraday market has risen to 87%, experts at the exchange said.

More than 2,000 companies globally have been involved in greenwashing incidents over the past four years, as scrutiny of unsubstantiated sustainability claims intensifies. While legislators such as those in the EU implement more stringent rules to tackle greenwashing – the practice of making false or misleading claims about the green or sustainable credentials of a product – companies are also increasingly being held accountable in court by anti-greenwashing litigation.

The Dutch government was closely monitoring the country’s gas storage levels but did not currently see a need to mandate the refilling of inventories, a spokesman told Montel.

The deep landing of green electricity produced by future Dutch offshore wind farms after 2031 is hanging by a thread after the government scrapped plans to lay high voltage direct current (HVDC) cables to transport offshore wind electricity inland.