Dutch trade body Holland Solar is urging the new Dutch government to introduce self-consumption incentives for batteries, boiler tanks and heat pumps used in combination with PV systems, as the country plans to phase out net metering by 2027 to abolish.
The new cabinet in the Netherlands has decided to abolish the net metering scheme for PV on roofs from 2027.
Holland Solar, the Dutch trade association for the solar sector, welcomed the cabinet’s decision. However, it also urges the country to create financial incentives to support PV system owners to increase their own consumption.
“It is time to take the next step in the energy transition and help consumers use their own generated solar energy,” the association said in a statement. “There are many options available, from energy management systems to residential batteries and from boiler tanks to heat pumps.”
Wijnand van Hooff, general manager of Holland Solar, says that the current netting arrangement is no longer sustainable.
“Owners of PV systems are increasingly confronted with grid tariffs charged by energy suppliers to cover the rising costs of the net metering system” he said. “The more a household returns to the electricity grid, the higher these costs become.”
The association highlighted recent research by CE Delft and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), which is evaluating the impact of ending net metering by 2027. The study shows that even without selling excess power to the grid, PV system owners could maintain their financial returns by increasing self-consumption from about 30% to 60%.
Van Hooff noted that the Netherlands can learn from this Germanywhere 75% of new solar installations include home batteries, supported by rebates from national and regional governments.
“This has optimized household energy consumption and reduced pressure on the electricity grid” he said, referring to ongoing grid restrictions that are slowing the growth of renewable energy in the Netherlands.
The push to end net metering and promote battery incentives started in 2021, when Energy Storage NL and the Gas Association Network Management Netherlands proposed a discount program for storage systems. They argued that promoting battery technologies would help commercialize them in the Dutch market by 2023 and address the rapid growth of solar power, which has led to serious problems. bottlenecks in the networkespecially in the low voltage network.
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