Renewable energy in The Netherlands: policy and instruments

To achieve a place for renewables and energy from waste in a liberalized energy market the government has to focus on a more demand-driven approach, and for specific technologies, a more supply-driven policy will be required. The available financial and fiscal instruments, regulations and voluntary agreements provide new opportunities. The Dutch government has supported renewables with fiscal instruments (green funds, tax credits and an energy tax) since 1996. As a follow-up of the green energy market and the mandated share set by the Energy Companies, the government introduced in 2001 a system for tradable green certificates. On 1 July 2001 the market for green electricity became liberalized and the consumers of green electricity were free to chose their own supplier, the number of green consumers went up to 700,000 at the end of 2001.