Dutch coal-fired power plants see highest output in years: Report

Coal-fired power plants in the Netherlands are generating electricity at their highest levels in years, Dutch broadcaster NOS reported Monday.

Figures from the Netherlands’ National Energy Dashboard show that coal-fired plants have already generated more electricity this year than during all of 2024, NOS reported, citing financial daily Het Financieele Dagblad (FD).

Output through Aug. 14 remains below the level recorded for all of 2025, but the report said that figure is also likely to be surpassed.

Coal-fired power plants last operated at similarly high levels during the 2022 gas crisis, when Russia’s war on Ukraine sent gas prices soaring.

A similar situation has emerged amid the war in Iran, despite a higher CO2 levy on the use of coal, the report said.

The increased coal-fired generation was attributed mainly to high energy prices and a sharp rise in electricity demand from neighboring Belgium.

“Coal-fired power plants are also stepping in because demand for electricity from abroad has increased,” said Martien Visser, emeritus lecturer in energy transition at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen.

“We are exporting a lot of electricity abroad,” Visser added.

Belgium had to import much of its electricity during the first half of the year as two major nuclear power plants underwent maintenance, according to the report.

Visser said the increased use of coal-fired power plants was not necessarily bad news, citing European agreements on overall emissions under which higher emissions in one country would have to be offset by lower emissions elsewhere.

He also argued that greater reliance on coal-fired plants was not only a necessity but could also provide an opportunity to conserve natural gas.

“By using coal-fired power plants, we save 60 million cubic meters of gas per week. We can use that to replenish our gas reserves,” Visser added.