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My parents in France replaced their 40 year old gas boiler with a heat pump 5 years ago, half subsidized by the government, then replaced their gas range with induction and got rid of gas altogether. This includes hot water (using a tank). They pay less thanks to France’s cheap nuclear power, help wean the country off foreign energy from unreliable or hostile countries and does good for the environment. What’s not to like?

Yes, but contrary to the Netherlands, France has an electrical network that is able to cope much better with the demand of heat pumps, as many houses have traditionally been heated by electricity.

If anything, using more energy-efficient heat pumps might even decrease the load on the network.

European grid is linked together. That's one of the significant points of single market. Netherlands can use French electricity.

No, the problem is that the Dutch grid cannot cope with its own internal demands.

https://dutchtimes.nl/business/connection-ban-in-utrecht-sig...

https://nltimes.nl/2026/02/12/grid-operator-warns-overload-u...

https://nos.nl/artikel/2611522-vol-stroomnet-utrecht-is-een-...

Having just added airco in NL I do worry about this - I actually suspect we could get a _long_ ways with more intelligent timing around power use. Your car can wait to charge while your hob boils a pot of water, etc. House batteries can help a lot with this too of course.

If it's only airco it's perhaps not too bad, as your airco usage will most often be aligned with good solar capacity, and you can compensate with solar panels. (if that's possible for you...)

For solar, starting next year, you'll get less and less money for the energy you give back to the net, so you might as well us it and store it for yourself instead of letting the energy shareholders get rich with your production.

If your unit is also to be used as heat pump, well.. ..things look bleaker globaly in the Netherlands.. Especially if more and more people step over from gas to electric. No sun + cold wave (and therefore an inefficient heat pump) is going to put some people in the cold..

A smarter network could help, if the investments were sufficient. But the problem has been known since the early 2000s, and nothing has been done about it until recently.

I've never found a coherent explanation of what this problem is, as an outsider looking in.

It roughly matches the shape of the American datacenter issue where an uptick in demand that is small compared with the level of extra demand required for EVs and heat pumps and industrial electrification to decarbonise the economy has apparently caused massive problems.

And also the Australian experience where the grid companies would rather curtail solar than sell it cheaply (often because the same companies profit from evening gas prices).

You are then forced to conclude that there was simply no coherent plan for electrification. Decades of planning time utterly squandered.

Probably spent arguing about whether climate change was real.

During my holidays this summer I met, by happenstance, an expert specialized in forecasts modeling, who has been involved in this very problematic, advising the dutch government.

He told me that the problem had been forecast and known since the early 2000s, and that basically nothing was done about it until very recently (think less than 5 years).

The problem was made worse with the privatization of the electricity network, as the incentive to invest in primary net infrastructure was very low.

So it's the classical case of a known problem with no will to invest, combined with successive governments that wash their hands saying "it's privatized, we cannot interfere". (so also with no will to invest)

The problem was foreseen, the plans were made and proposed with actionable steps and real deadlines, and nothing was done because the costs were too high.

And now the short-to-medium term prognosis is bleak, with blackouts a real possibility.

Hmmm. Reminds me of 1999, when I worked for Dutch ISP EuroNet Internet BV, and the legacy telco KPN claimed it did not have capacity on its phone network and needed at least 2 years to connect our modems. Odd that a country whose very existence is predicated on keeping its dam/polder network running, something which has led to a very Japanese-like culture of consensus, allowed such critical networks as the electric grid or phone network to rot.

> As well they should.

Assuming there is no pressing reason and the wells are dormant, why would it be a good idea to destroy options? I did not fact check these claims though. Maybe there are other reasons to close them. But if it is solely do remove them from equation altogether, it is stupid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precommitment

These are European governments with trillions of dollars of GDPs. They should not be trying to cock block themselves like teenagers in these matters.

Welcome to Europe

Presumably, if technology advances to the point where it is safe to burn fossil fuels again, it will also advance to the point where cement won't stop people from accessing the gas wells.

Looking where USA is and where some EU countries may he going soon (not sure yet, but the risk is there) ... that is why.

Burning fossil fuels is not a real option, it is a threat to all of humanity that it is horrendous we are not doing more to stop.

I agree, if we were run by people good at weighing short vs long term decisions, but we often are not.

That being said, I do worry that that outcome of this isn't "stop using gas" but "keep using American LNG", which would be worse.

Continuing to rely on fossil fuels or use them as a backup is not a serious option.

More Fucked Today Than Yesterday - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49441781 - August 2026

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49425005 (citations)

Gas HAS to be used as a backup for renewables today (or at least in places without good pumped hydro?). Enough batteries to supply an entire grid for a day or two is just out of reach today.

At least in Australia, I'm not sure how the dynamics go with such a geographically diverse grid like Europe.

Yes, certainly, I agree. But, at the same time, we should be electrifying and rapidly deploying storage (both energy and heat) as quickly as possible. "Burn the ships" and commit.

Battery boom brings round-the-clock solar closer, Ember says - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49466337 - August 2026

CATL Secures 2GWh Sodium-Ion Storage Deal with Solarpro for Eastern Europe - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219960 - August 2026

> Solar PV supplied more than 10% of global electricity in the first half of 2026, but generation remains heavily concentrated around midday. Ember says rapidly expanding, cheaper battery storage could shift 34% of new daily solar generation to non-solar hours in 2026, bringing round-the-clock solar closer.

The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone [3TW] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49151977 - August 2026

UNIGRID's sodium-ion home battery debuts in Europe, US is next - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48867257 - July 2026

Ember Energy: EU gas demand set to drop 7% by 2030, making new gas investments risky - https://ember-energy.org/latest-updates/eu-gas-demand-set-to... - June 17th, 2025

The subsidies are a scam that make construction companies more wealthy, there has hardly been a drop in the price you eventually pay imho. I insulated my entire house myself... No subsidy. Ah well, it is more comfortable (though partly we are exchanging the ability to stay warm in winter with that of staying cool in summer), but to say I really notice that we use much less gas... Not really actually. Strange right? I expected much more from it.

Insulation helps with both staying warm and cool, though. After all, a big foam beer cooler is just a hollow box of insulation.

I think for a lot of Dutch houses the real issue is draftiness. No amount of insulation fixes that. Hell, the windows have required vents that can't really be closed properly installed per code. I thought the previous owners were quirky but then noticed _all_ the houses have these weird vents at the top of some windows.

Yep. Forced to insulate but also have ventilation which undoes the isolation.

Also isolation is great unless you open a window xD

Yes but... check the CO2 levels when you close the vents, and watch the water flow from your windows, and see the mold grow on the north wall.

Also, isolation keeps out the heat... Until it is inside, then it keeps it there. I agree it makes air condition more economical, but not many people have them (yet, it's booming).

True, if your house is actually hotter than outdoor temps (so in the evening if your house was roasting all day).

Awnings and window shades are really important here. It's insane we don't have every south facing window with an exterior cover.

It wasn't that insane when our summer nights were 24 degrees C instead of 29, what a difference that makes.

Modern-ish houses have mechanical ventilation, then you don't need vents. Old houses don't, so you need to get ventilate the passive way.

Part of the reason for the ventilation requirements is due to burning fossil fuels in the home for heat and cooking.

You can ventilate a little less when you're generating less pollution in the home.

Some ventilation is still a good idea though.

"Some ventilation is still a good idea though."

I think a CO2 meter is an excellent idea, imho it is a good proxy for "air freshness", so also small particles etc. This year I want to try to ventilated more based on CO2 (so close the vents until CO2 becomes unacceptable) and monitor gas use (hooray for Home Assistant).

There's been research showing that high "acceptable" CO2 causes drop in cognitive abilities.

> "The government is demolishing the wells to prevent a future government from reconsidering its decision to stop producing gas."

Should there be a reconsideration - they could of course always just drill new wells into the known, proven resource. If they mothballed the existing wells for a few years they would probably need to anyway, or spend piles of money keeping them viable.

Yes, but making it more effort/costlier makes it less likely that it will be done unless there are really compelling reasons to.

They’ll just dig new holes next to the concrete.

You’re just spending money to feel good.

"Just digging new holes" also costs money, and hence the deterrence is still having the intended effect.

Wasting money is the goal.

No, stopping the re-opening is the goal. Making people waste money if they want to is the means.

I have a heat pump system, the hot water works alright.

The only minor issue is during winter months, if the daughter and the wife shower one right after the other, it takes some 40 minutes for the boiler to have hot water again.

Is this a heat pump water heater? That's interesting since they should have a very large tank but also take more than 40 minutes to heat up, usually. A backup resistive element could make this faster of course.

It is. It serves both for heating the radiators and for the warm water in the sinks/shower/dishwasher/laundry, but I understand both to be separated systems fed by the same heat pump.

The boiler is not huge, but it has enough water for 2 or 3 people showering in a row, depending on how quickly that happens and what other things sre using hot water now.

It doesn't take super long to have hot water again, but it depends on how cold it is outside. On colder days it obviously take longer.

Destroying own wells only to import gas does nothing to reduce the carbon footprint (it's actually increases it if you'll account emissions from LNG tankers). Efforts should be directed into non-carbon generation and electrification. And if it will be competitive there will be little incentives for the next government to restart the production.

> As well they should.

Because pouring millions of tons of concrete to the ground is very environment friendly.

Cool, did you let China know about it?

Other "fun fact" it seems the Netherlands uses gas cooktops much more than other European countries.

Yeah, they're pretty close-minded about cooking. In more ways than one.

The gas is primarily used to generate electricity. Where do you suggest the electricity for their electrification comes from?

Mythical future technology it seems

Nuclear, wind and solar are all pretty old at this point.

Hell, Nuclear is 1940's technology. Are you telling me that the famously industrious Dutch are unable to produce energy without pumping gas out of Groningen?

wind, solar, batteries, perhaps nuclear.

Don’t expect anything to be decided by this cabinet. Springtime elections are pretty certain IMHO

Hopefully we get much better renewables support (and with it lower public transit fares...), fixes for the insane box 3 rules due to come in to effect, yimby reforms to let people actually build homes in cities, and the right to air conditioning enshrined in law...