Four centuries of peat extraction in the North of the Netherlands, 1550-1950

Peat digging played an important role there because in the course of four hundred years around 100,000 hectare raised bog peat and 42,000 hectare fenland peat was converted to dry peat fuel, representing a combustion value of 3.5 x 109 gigajoules. This peat was excavated from 62 raised bog areas and 11 fenland areas.

An assessment is made of the importance of these various peat-bogs and fenlands, both with regard to each other and to the total picture. It also enables the categorisation into periods. Above all, in this way the contribution made by the peat digging in the northern Netherlands to the national energy supply is researched.