This article was last updated on February 12, 2025
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Natural gas consumption stabilizes after years of decrease
In 2024, the Netherlands used about as much natural gas as a year earlier, about 30 billion cubic meters. The stabilization comes after years in which gas consumption is constantly falling.
Especially in 2022 the gas consumption went down hard, namely by a quarter. Russia started the war with Ukraine, the gas price rise to new records and the government came with the advice to set your thermostat higher than 19 degrees. In the industry, some companies temporarily stopped production because no more profit could be made with such a high gas price.
More for industry and home
In 2023, gas consumption fell by another 5 percent. But that decrease has come to an end, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics. With the generation of electricity, gas consumption still fell sharply, by 8 percent. This was mainly due to the increased use of wind and solar energy.
But at the same time, the industry consumed 9 percent more than a year earlier. In a large part of 2024, the gas price was a lot lower than in 2023. Households also used more gas last year than in 2023, a small increase of 3.3 percent. According to the CBS, this was mainly due to the cold winter of the beginning of 2024.
Less extraction and import, more out of storage
Less gas was won in the Netherlands last year and less gas was introduced from abroad. At the same time, the consumption remained the same. That meant that at the end of 2024 there was considerably less in the Dutch natural gas stores than a year earlier.
CO2 is released when burning natural gas. And CO2 emissions lead to global warming. The central government therefore wants the Dutch to use less and less natural gas. In 2050, the Netherlands will have to be climate neutral and no more CO2 will emit net.
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