Recently the Netherlands has been changing the key issues in their energy policy. This development can influence their partners, giving them new demands to meet. Canada seems to be interested in a sustainable biomass marketplace as the Netherlands.
The Netherlands is a prosperous country with a sustainable economy, well-developed industry and quite low level of inflation and unemployment. Amsterdam, one of the biggest airports of Europe, and Rotterdam, a large-scale port, are situated here and make the Netherlands a transportation hub of great importance for the European Union. The Dutch economy to a large extent depends on international trade, thus it has a great number of partners, among which the most important are the following: the USA, the EU member countries, China and others.
Canada is one of the Netherlands' biggest suppliers of resource-based goods, specifically fossil fuels and minerals, refined petroleum and different metals. Energy is a very important industry sector for the Netherlands, so sustainable suppliers are essential. In terms of biomass trade, and namely wood pellets, the Netherlands imports about 90% of the total consumption. Until recently, the Netherlands was Canada's largest export market of wood pellets. Currently, there are no remarkable wood pellet supplies from Canada to the Netherlands. Although, Canada has obtained a boost in trading with the UK, Belgium, Italy and other countries, the cooperation with the Netherlands is still desirable.
This situation was not always the case. Earlier, when the MEP subsidy was operating, the trading process was much more dynamic. The program soon ceased to exist, as well as the greater amount of Canadian export to the Netherlands. But now a new hope about Dutch wood pellet market is arising. And it is connected to new government programs for energy production sector.
The program appeared in 2013, it was agreed by the Dutch government, energy sector and environmental organizations. The Energy Accord included the Support Sustainable Energy Production (SDE+) and some additional agreements of the parties.
The SDE+ is a program aiming to encourage the development of renewable energy sources in the Netherlands in order to meet the European Union 2020 RES targets, stated by the Renewable Energy Directive. According to the latter, the country is to reach 14% share of RES in the total consumption by 2020. Thus, the SDE+ was brought into existence to subsidize plants, working on biofuels. The program will compensate unprofitable production of the clean energy to the producers for a fixed period of time. It covers the production of renewable electricity, gas and heat. The grant sums for the enterprises depend on the technology used and on the energy price itself, so that when prices are high, the producer gets more profit from the customer, and less program funds.
The SDE+ program put some demands for the producing companies to face. But still many of the Canadian companies can meet the program's demands when it comes to wood pellets. Canada commands a number of sustainably managed forests and can prove their quality by FSC certificates and other of the kind. However, some experts claim that the requirements set in the agreements may make the supplies to the Netherlands impossible at all. Another complication here is connected with long-running negotiations, which postpone the real actions and results. The annual budget for 2015 has already been taken for wind power, so the nearest possible date to apply for the grant for wood pellet companies will be only in 2016.
Soon we will see how seriously the Netherlands intends to meet the RES goals and if the Support Sustainable Energy Production program is a sufficient impetus for development. This is the key issue to understanding of future prospects of the Dutch wood pellet marketplace for Canada.
MEP (Environmental Quality of Electricity Production) is a subsidy paid to the producers of eco-friendly energy in the Netherlands, established in 2003.
FSC is a global organization aiming in providing efficient and responsible forest using. FSC Certification ensures the safety and pureness of the forest managing.
