Belgian demand pushes Dutch coal plants to run harder

Dutch coal-fired power stations have generated more electricity so far this year than in the whole of 2024, driven by high gas prices and a sharp rise in demand from Belgium, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Monday.

Coal plants normally run harder from October, when electricity demand rises and less wind and solar power is available.

The figures come from data platform Nationaal Energie Dashboard. Coal was last burned at this rate during the 2022 gas crisis, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed gas prices so high that coal became the cheaper fuel.

Belgian shortfall
Much of the extra output has left the country. Belgium took its last two working nuclear reactors offline, which went offline in April for safety upgrades.

That left Belgium importing 7.5 billion kWh more electricity than it exported in the second quarter, a record, beating a previous high set in late 2015. Most of it came from the Netherlands and France.

“Coal plants are also stepping in,” energy transition specialist Martien Visser at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen told  broadcaster NOS, “because demand for electricity from abroad has increased.”

Climate trade-off
Visser said the extra Dutch emissions were not necessarily bad news, because European rules cap total emissions across member states, so higher output in one country can mean less elsewhere.

“Not all countries are moving at the same speed on the energy transition,” he told NOS, adding that Dutch coal was preferable to German lignite, which is dirtier. Burning coal also frees up gas – 60 million cubic metres a week, or around 20% of Dutch demand.

Coal is the most polluting way to generate electricity, and Dutch law requires the three remaining plants, two on the Maasvlakte near Rotterdam and one in the Eemshaven, to stop burning it by 2030.

CDA leader Henri Bontenbal called earlier this year for the plants to stay open as a backstop.