Netherlands Desperately Rationing Electricity to Preserve its Green Energy Grid
Europe took Al Gore’s “Net Zero” delusions seriously. What did it get them? Black-outs and grid limitations.
The last time I wrote about former Vice President Al Gore, he was complaining bitterly about the failure of the 2023 United Nations climate meeting in Dubai to generate an agreement to phase out fossil fuels.
As I noted in my post, “The real ‘inconvenient truth’: The Iron Law of Electricity will always trump Climate Crisis Narrative.”
However, I was recently reminded in a brilliant X-thread that the European Union failed to recognize the importance of reliable and inexpensive energy. The E.U.’s adherence to “Net Zero” ambitions has substantially hindered its economic growth, with adverse impacts on its entire population — but especially the young people who are now struggling to find jobs, careers, and plan for their futures.
2/ In 2008, the U.S. and Eurozone economies were neck and neck.
Today, U.S. GDP per capita is nearly DOUBLE Europe’s.
They chose the climate cult, and all its stifling socialism.
We (mostly) chose freedom and growth. pic.twitter.com/fw9ElUtXob
— Rod D. Martin (@RodDMartin) July 14, 2025
The difference in prosperity is staggering.
5/ Europe’s tech scene? SAP. ASML.
Ours? Apple. Google. Microsoft. Amazon. Meta. OpenAI. Nvidia. XAI.
Just our top 4 firms are worth more than all 402 in MSCI Europe. pic.twitter.com/KCBW7S8wZ3
— Rod D. Martin (@RodDMartin) July 14, 2025
Legal Insurrection readers will recall that in April, days after bragging about achieving “Net Zero,” Spain was plunged into darkness after a blackout tied to its now-sensitive grid hit the Iberian peninsula.
Now the Netherlands is rationing electricity and connections to its greenified grid.
Thousands of businesses and households are waiting to connect to the Dutch grid, forcing network operators to ration power in an early indicator of what other European countries are likely to suffer as the speed of electrification increases.
More than 11,900 businesses are waiting for electricity network connections, according to Netbeheer Nederland, the association of Dutch grid operators. On top of that are public buildings such as hospitals and fire stations as well as thousands of new houses.
🚨Report: The Netherlands will be rationing electricity to ease stress on the power grid
Via: The Financial Times pic.twitter.com/OQM55wispD
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) July 13, 2025
Following Gore’s “Net Zero” delusions, Dutch leadership opted for energy seppuku. The country once relied heavily on its own natural gas resources. However, in 2023, it closed the Groningen gas field to help accelerate the shift.
The Netherlands has officially stopped drilling at the Europe’s largest gas field in Groningen, marking the occasion with a symbolic ceremony on Friday.
The occasion took place at the same spot where the deposit was reportedly discovered in 1959. Since the early 1960s, the field has been a major contributor to the country’s economy and it still has huge reserves of gas.
In 2025, it appears the Dutch chose … poorly.
There are plans to export this concept across Europe.
Similar measures are underway elsewhere. In Ireland, ESB Networks is upgrading the medium-voltage grid, quadrupling its capacity. In Belgium, Elia is deploying dynamic line rating systems to adjust power flows in real time. In Lithuania, legislation since 2022 has enabled the creation of hybrid power plants combining solar, wind and storage.
Capacity maps are also being developed to visualise congestion points and guide investment decisions. The objective is to locate projects — charging stations, distributed production — in less saturated areas. These tools also strengthen transparency and coordination among stakeholders.
Flexibility from distributed energy resources such as home batteries or electric vehicles offers an additional lever. This requires price signals adapted to local conditions to encourage behaviour aligned with grid status. The development of local flexibility markets could play a central role in this dynamic.
The wealth that has been squandered in the senseless endeavor to limit the concentration of a life-essential gas present in trace amounts within the atmosphere is staggering.
As Hot Air’s Beege Welborne notes, there will be consequences on future plans to develop new technologies.
All of these countries are vying for the AI centers, and none of them remotely have the power or potential to even begin to take advantage of the technology and the data center explosions coming with it. And, Lordy – who wants to pay that tab?
As I look back on the energy choices the U.S. could have made, it makes me grateful for people like Beege and many others (CO2 Coalition, Watts Up With That Blog, Dr. Judith Curry, Dr. Mattew Wielicki, Meteorologist Chris Martz, and brave scientists who continue to do research that challenges the “climate crisis” narrative).
We owe a deep debt to our Climate Reality Warriors.
Turn the air conditioning on “high”, pop open a cold beer from the fridge, and raise a toast to Climate Reality Warriors. pic.twitter.com/Hla9dg37gP
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) July 15, 2025
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
It’s a good bet that when electricity is rationed government facilities and the home of elites will get special dispensations to keep the lights on.
And, you will accept it, peasant.
and if you complain your ration of bugs will be cut …. we may cut it
anyway … how compliant are you.
peasant….
No cricket pasta for you!
The leftist apparatchik elites/nomenklatura always ensure that they are well-insulated from the deleterious effects/consequences of their destructive and idiotic policies.
“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”
Thomas Sowell
Don’t forget ze bugs.
You will eat ze bugs.
You will love ze bugs.
Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, Spain and the other E.U. countries that are stupid enough to implement manifestly idiotic and self-destructive “green”/”climate change” policies are destroying obscene numbers of jobs, industrial growth/competitiveness and national prosperity. To say nothing of the deleterious effects these policies wreak upon citizens’ quality-of-life/safety, as well as the undermining of national security.
It is hard to believe that the leaders of so many countries could be so collectively stupid, but, this is what the cancer of leftism and environmental fanaticism does.
I had meant to refer to “European countries,” not the E.U., because obviously the U.K. and a few other countries aren’t E.U. members.
Another factor that has not been noted but will reinforce the collapse. The Netherlands will get dark and hungry out. In an effort to forestall a functional rebellion the rest of the “Green” European countries will try to export electricity to the Netherlands. Which will push them to and beyond the edge until they back off trying to help the Netherlands because it is getting dark and hungry in their own countries and their locals are getting more than passing miffed.
The other factor is that functionally what were formerly European national borders have been reduced to the equivalent of our state borders and can easily be crossed without real restriction. Who would want to do that? How about the beneficiaries of this French court ruling a couple of days ago:
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/07/12/all-palestinians-in-gaza-are-eligible-for-asylum-in-france-court-rules/
All Palestinians in Gaza have the right to move to France for asylum and as residents. Y’all can bet that they will be going all over Europe engaging in Jihadic fecal agitation in the middle of all the “dark and hungry”.
You may want to postpone any vacations to Europe for a while; and if you are an expatriate American, you may want to look at other places to expatriate to.
Subotai Bahadur
Or put another way, if I want to vacation in Africa, I can just go to Europe.
Hard pass, especially the UK.
I recently spent a week in London. It was completely tourist stuff. I did not witness any knife attacks, any incidents of antisemitism, any pro-Hamas events, any anti-Americanism. I saw no protests.
There were some large crowds over some football (so-called — soccer to us Yanks) match, but it was all good spirited and I did not see any ugly drunks.
You didn’t witness those events and attitudes during a week-long trip; that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.
All of the accumulated evidence from the past decade, as well as the prevaling cultural/political winds, indicate that the U.K. under Labour’s malignant rule is now deeply and unrepentantly anti-Semitic, unfairly and irrationally hostile to Israel and naively and stupidly tolerant of obnoxious Islamofascism and Muslim supremacism. And, there have been scores of pro-Hamas protests since the 10/7 attacks; they just didn’t occur in the seven days comprising your stay.
Keep in mind the voters who put them in office. You would think that after suffering this much they would vote differently, but they don’t.
these green socialist paradises have to make laws limiting or eliminating competition
then they brag how great their agenda is b/c they reached their goals
look, we are 80% ev only…etc etc
then the msm does their job and everyone who wants to believe that gov is the greatest gets to brag on that
all bs allll the time
When China is rolling over people with their fossil fueled vehicles/tanks the girls can fight back in their solar powered tanks
BUT ONLY if the CCP will play fair and follow the rules to only fight when the sun is out,, the girlies will cry
By the way, what is hustler, Gore’s, net worth, today? How many palatial homes does this imbecile own? Oh, I know — he claims to purchase “carbon offset credits” or whatever they’re called, so, the environmental impact of his mansions is alleged to be nil. I call “BS” on that.
Gore has cleaned up rather nicely in the private equity “green” rackets, to the tune of (I assume) several hundred million dollars. Nice work, if you can get it.
The real “Inconvenient Truth” is Gore making out like a bandit and living like a king, while peddling consumer/lifestyle asceticism and deprivation to all the peasants and rubes.
Al Bore’s net worth is about 330 million dollars. With that much he needs to buy some hair plugs.
You’d think that he would spend some of that money on Rogaine treatments, or, a decent wig.
He should be tried for crimes against humanity along with other large contributors to the manmade global warm hoax including AOC, Sanders, Mann, Kerry, DiCaprio, and that malignant troglodyte from Sweden,
And I have purchased indulgences to save my soul.
He is FAR from an imbecile. He is smart enough to have played many, many people for suckers.
If your country is experiencing brownouts, blackouts, and energy rationing, you live in a second-world nation. If you are subject to wide-scale blackouts, you’re either in a third-world country or you have been attacked by the IAF.
Or you live in CA.
Most people don’t really appreciate how central the availability of relatively cheap energy/fuel is to maintaining a functional first world economy and modern standard of living. The ‘net zero’ fanatics have their claws into a few States and IMO the best thing to do is allow their voters to either change course or suffer the consequences. No last minute rescues, no shipping electricity to these deep blue net zero fanatics who refuse to produce sufficient electricity within their State. A demonstration of the folly of ‘green’ propaganda and its failure to deliver reliable, cheap power to meet demand might just deter other jurisdictions from following them.
That would prevent Texas and a couple of other states from selling cheap NG to them at confiscatory prices, thus making Texas even more prosperous and attractive to newcomers from Cali………… never mind. Let them rot.
The globalist agenda has always been spreading misery equally among the lower classes.
Funny. That seems to be the socialist agenda as well.
Holland must be suicidal. They also declared war on their intensive farming methods, threatening to put farms out of business. Oddly, Dutch farmers were so successful they are the world ‘s second largest food exporter. That’s a lot of Gouda! The farmer restrictions produced the tractor protests, but I have to admit I don’t know how the situation was resolved.
I’m so glad Netherlands is suffering.
Now if it were only Belgium where the EU is headquartered.
“in April, days after bragging about achieving “Net Zero,” Spain was plunged into darkness”
Hey, zero in, zero out — stupendous success!
Back when I was stupid and thought Al Gore was an inspirational guy, I bought his book Earth in the Balance. When I got to the chapter that dealt with an issue in which I am a subject matter expert, I discovered that his arguments were a mile wide and an inch deep. It was at that moment I had my first Gell-Mann amnesia attack. Al Gore was/is full of (poop) and shouldn’t be listened to on any topic.
It really takes a special kind of stupid to think you can build Baseline power out of unreliable power sources like solar and wind and not have brownouts and blackouts as a regular course of business. Apparently, the Dutch are that special kind of stupid
Given that the Dutch have been using windmills since the 13th century, primarily for grinding grains, perhaps they thought that grinding brains was a good modern application.
Western Culture seems to always fall back on the idea that the successful are thieves and the comfortable are sinners. We used to worry about God destroying the earth “with fire this time” because of our evil ways. We must never be too happy or live an easy life. If we are not suffering we are sinning and it will destroy all of us.
With the general decline in belief in the traditional religions and the rise of the new priests of “Science” we began to believe that our luxuriant behavior has angered the great god Gaia who will call forth storms and famine on our children.
The arrogance and self-importance of the Greens amuses me. What percentage of the earth’s CO2 originates in the Netherlands? If every car and cow there stopped and everyone held their breath so as not to exhale CO2 what would be the percentage decrease in greenhouse gases?
And, this green living is just an amusement for the rich who get pleasure from virtue signaling. My neighbor has solar panels and drives a $100K electric Mercedes with a white leather interior. At a party one evening, late enough that I’d had a few drinks, I started to tell them how much the children in Africa appreciated their efforts to save the planet. Fortunately my wife lassoed me and dragged me away before they realized that I wasn’t actually praising them.
I’m torn on which I think is more brilliant:
Europe’s plan to base all of their electricity generation on solar, wind, and unicorn farts … or Europe’s plan to cool the world by shutting down all of their farms and ranches and forcing the masses to dine on crickets and flatworms.
It’s hard to pick my favorite …
The rationing will only hurt the proles which is the entire point. The self-appointed global “elites”, aka communists, don’t even hide their contempt for us anymore. We have too much freedom, you see. And they mean to punish us for it.
Just a thought, but isn’t it going to be rather difficult to “develop new technologies” when the lab doesn’t have power?
Just sayin’
So where are the critical European scientists? Do they have anyone like our Steve Koonin, who (in my opinion) wrote the best book (“Unsettled”) exposing the defects in the UN’s IPCC reports? Pols read newspapers and executive summaries, and that might explain how the Europeans got everything so wrong. Will they fight a war with Russia using electric tanks? Will they come whining to the US to bail them out? It’s time to tell then “no.”
Do hospitals and fire stations actually have no power? Almost 12,000 homes?
While I don’t mean to challenge the underlying thesis here, the argument that the Dutch are shutting down the Groningen field in pursuit of Net Zero is incorrect. The extraction of large quantities of natural gas from the field over decades has caused subsidence in a relative wide (for the Dutch) area. Given that most of the Netherlands is below sea level, having land sink further is a major concern, and the Dutch are no longer willing to produce gas for this reason, particular for export.
From a strictly Net Zero perspective, Europe as a whole would be much better off if the Dutch were ramping up production from Groningen to replace Russian gas rather than forcing the Germans to switch to Lignite for power generation. Western Europe is quite limited when it comes to oil and gas production, By global standards, Western Europe has limited conventional energy reserves, mainly coal, which is a constant constraint on economic growth and has played a major role in geopolitics since 1900.
GDP and energy are tightly correlated, and you could argue that one of the main reasons that Europe was able to keep pace with the US prior to 2008 was the exploitation of North Sea Oil and Gas that started in the early 1980s. As those fields have been depleted, growth across the region has slowed. At the same time, the fracking revolution has allowed oil and gas production in the US to reach all time highs after an extended period of decline over the latter part of the 20th century. European shale fields are different from the major US fields, and US technology isn’t as economic when applied to what Europe has. Part of the reason decarbonization is an easier sell in Europe is that wind and solar are replacing expensive (either economically or geopolitically) imports. That and the German Greens’ fear of nuclear. Unfortunately, wind and solar won’t work either, but it will take some time to acknowledge that and start to pursue alternatives. Combine that with the demographic collapse underway and I’m not particularly hopeful about much of Europe’s prospects over the course of this century.
It’s also worth noting that much of what China has been doing over the last 25 years has been driven by similar constraints. China is also reliant on oil and gas imports to support their economy. Electric cars and high speed rail are driven not by concerns around carbon emissions, but because they can convert large demands for oil to electricity, which can be generated from domestic coal reserves supplemented by easily stockpiled coal and uranium imports. They are willing to invest vast sums into these areas not because they are economically efficient, but because they offer the Chinese government the freedom to act internationally without being exposed to an immediately crippling blockade of oil imports.
The Chinese are happy to play along with western Greens, but just as useful idiots. Xi is an engineer by training, and I’m sure he understands the underlying reality. Getting the Europeans and to a lesser extent the Americans to carry some of the costs is just gravy,
You would think they would be building nuclear power plants as fast as they could.
Then they could charge all those electric cars
IT. WON’T. WORK.
Why is that so hard to understand? Electricity isn’t a commodity; it is a service. It must be generated and used simultaneously. If I can’t control generation to meet demand, then I have to control demand to meet generation. That means brown outs and blackouts. It means curtailment.
This is elementary stuff. Literally stuff we have known since Edison.
About 20% wind and solar is all the grid can handle. That is not a small amount, but it means that 80% has to be something else that is dispatchable. Nat gas. Nuclear. Coal. Geothermal.