How can the Netherlands accelerate industrial decarbonisation while keeping its industry competitive? Our new joint study with Guidehouse, commissioned by the Ministry of Climate Policy and Green Growth (KGG), explores how Contracts for Difference (CfDs) can be one of the important enablers for the electrification of Dutch industry.

Electrifying industrial processes is essential to achieving the Netherlands’ climate goals, but high and volatile electricity prices remain a major obstacle to investment.
CfDs can address this challenge by providing price stability, reducing investment risk, and aligning renewable supply with growing electricity demand from industry.

Our study shows that:

• Well-designed CfDs can reduce price risks for industry and strengthen investment certainty.
• Coordinated policy design is key to matching renewable electricity supply with industrial demand.
• Four-sided CfDs (directly linking industrial consumers and renewable generators) offer the strongest long-term potential, while two-sided CfDs with policy coordination provide a practical near-term solution.

A big thank you to KGG for their trust, and to our partners at Guidehouse for the constructive and inspiring collaboration throughout this project. Additionally thanks to the organisations who made themselves available for an informal consultation during the project, also on behalf of the Ministry of Climate Policy and Green Growth. 

You can find the full report here.