Source：pv-magazine

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.

The new cabinet in the Netherlands has decided to abolish the net-metering scheme for rooftop PV from 2027.

Holland Solar, the Dutch trade association for the solar sector, welcomed the decision of the government. However, it is also urging it to create financial incentives to support PV system owners to increase their self-consumption rates.

“It is time to take the next step in the energy transition and help consumers use their own generated solar power,” 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, said that the current net-metering scheme is no longer sustainable.

“PV system owners are increasingly confronted with grid fees that energy suppliers charge to cover the rising costs of the net metering scheme,” he said. “The more a household feeds back into the electricity grid, the higher these costs become.”

The association highlighted recent studies by CE Delft and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), which evaluate the impact of ending the net-metering scheme in 2027. The research shows that even without selling excess power to the grid, PV system owners could maintain their financial returns by raising self-consumption rates from about 30% to 60%.

Van Hooff noted that the Netherlands can learn from Germany, where 75% of new solar installations include home batteries, supported by national and regional government rebates.

“This has both optimized the energy consumption of households and reduced the pressure on the electricity grid,” he said, referring to ongoing grid constraints that are slowing renewable energy growth in the Netherlands.

The push to end net metering and promote battery incentives began in 2021, when Energy Storage NL and gas association Netbeheer Nederland proposed a rebate program for storage systems. They argued that promoting battery technologies would help commercialize them in the Dutch market by 2023 and address rapid solar growth, which has caused serious grid bottlenecks, particularly in the low-voltage network.