Flanders

A new amendment to the region’s energy law allows enterprises to sell power to one other through the so-called direct line model, starting from 2019.

Flanders’ Ministry of Energy intends to make it easier for renewable energy suppliers to sell power to a final customer through a direct connection. This is expected to encourage industrial customers and public entities to increase consumption from clean energy sources.

The funds are part of a €100 million investment plan. The pilot projects will be developed on water surfaces that are not utilized for other purposes.

Through the platform Zonnegids, the Flemish Ministry of Energy seeks to connect developers of commercial and industrial PV projects with private citizens that want to invest in solar, but have no surface available.

Almost all of last year’s newly installed PV capacity comes in the form of residential PV systems not exceeding 10 kW, installed under net metering.

The so-called “prosumer tax” was introduced in July 2015 and applies to residential PV systems not exceeding 10 kW installed under net metering.

Because biomass is not performing as expected, the Belgian Flemish-speaking region has raised by one third its EU targets for solar and wind, and has improved investment conditions for commercial and industrial PV.

The Minister of Energy of the Flanders hopes that another 6.4 million solar modules can be installed in the region under his mandate until 2020.

A 2.2 MW rooftop PV array was installed on Nike’s distribution center in Ham. The facility will cover up to 15% of the building’s energy needs.

Once a leading solar market, the Belgian macro-region of Flanders keeps showing signs of robust growth in new installations in the first five months of this year, after installing 103 MW of solar in 2016.