2023-12-28 14:43:27
The more wind and solar energy is produced, the cheaper the electricity becomes. This has been a law for years. This has saved the Netherlands 7.1 billion euros over the past three years.
Sometimes beautiful year-end events just fall into your lap, so to speak. Many annual reviews have of course been produced in recent weeks and one man I always pay extra attention to is ‘energy calculator’ Martien Visser. This lecturer in energy transition at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen is famous for his many illuminating graphs.
A few days ago he nicely demonstrated how we all benefit from sustainable energy in the Netherlands. He looks at what percentage of our electricity comes from sun and wind at any given time and compares that with the price of a kWh of electricity. It then turns out that if no wind or solar energy is supplied at all, electricity costs 16 cents per kWh (not including taxes); if all electricity comes from sun and wind, it is free. In between there is a straight line from 16 to 0: the more sustainable electricity, the cheaper.
Visser rightly notes that people with a permanent contract do not notice this effect on a daily basis, but they do notice this when they conclude their contract. After all, solar and wind make electricity cheaper on average over an entire year.
Billions saved
You cannot tell from the graph how much cheaper. But the International Energy Agency IEA has calculated that for us. In the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, Europe has saved almost 100 billion euros on its electricity bill thanks to wind and solar. For the Netherlands this is 7.1 billion, initially less and now more than 2.5 billion euros per year.
In the first half of this year, sustainable energy already accounted for 50 percent of our power needs. This means a price of regarding 8 cents per kWh (although biomass plays a role in addition to sun and wind). It is also 8 cents less than the 16 cents we would have to pay without wind and sun. If sustainable electricity also covers half of our electricity consumption throughout the year, and that seems to me to be an estimate that is too low rather than too high, then an average household with 3000 kWh of consumption would have a benefit of approximately 240 euros, excluding taxes. Thanks in part to almost three million households that now have solar panels on their roof.
Special milestone
The Netherlands is doing very well with solar panels, I wrote regarding that before. Globally, we are number two following Australia when it comes to solar power per capita.
Globally, a special milestone has been passed this year. In 2004, 1 gigawatt of solar panels was installed around the world for the first time in a year. In 2010 this was approximately 1 GW per month. Another five years later we placed that GW on roofs and meadows in a week. And this year we are already doing just over 1 GW per day. That is more than two million solar panels per day… In total, just over 400 GW of solar panels will be added this year. These will supply as much power as more than a hundred nuclear power stations à la Borssele.
Lots of electricity from the North Sea
A good prospect for Dutch energy consumers: your electricity might become considerably cheaper in the coming years.
Vincent Dekker writes regarding innovations and developments in the field of green energy, near and far from home. More episodes ontrouw.nl/vincentwilzon. Vincent now also has a podcast, including regarding heat pumps – listen to it via this link or search for it through the known channels.
Also read:
The world already installed 40 nuclear power plants with solar panels in 2020
Reporting that many more solar panels were installed worldwide last year than the year before is not news. This has been happening for regarding 20 years in a row now. So now some figures to put this into perspective: those new solar panels supply as much power per year as forty nuclear power stations à la Borssele.
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