net metering

Utility Nova Scotia Power wanted to impose a monthly charge on net-metered solar system owners which the Canadian Renewable Energy Association said could have doubled the payback period for household and commercial arrays.

Commercial and industrial clients across the continent are turning to solar amid fears ever more cash-strapped conventional electricity companies will be unable to invest in their creaking grids, an online event has heard.

With Emergency Ordinance no. 143/2021, the Romanian government has restored legal certainty for bilateral power purchase agreements and has created more favorable conditions for solar power generators under net metering regime.

Through the scheme, the Irish government intends to allocate around 380 MW of solar power. Projects of up to 50 kW will be entitled to participate and installations not exceeding 6 kW in size will be given a maximum rebate of €2,400.

In the Belgian macro-region of Flanders, residential PV system owners that decided to install smart meters and abandon net metering are currently seeing their injection tariffs being paid at €0.11, up from just €0.03 in January. This gain adds to the high value of the kilowatt-hours they self-consume and it is helping them halve the payback time of their installations.

The national goals set by European countries two years ago already look hopelessly out of date thanks to the global PV boom. The Euro trade association for the industry has called for ambitions to be radically scaled up in 2023 if the world is to have any chance of capping temperature rises at 1.5C.

Industry association SolarPower Europe expects little change in the line-up of Europe’s biggest residential battery markets in four years’ time, with a rush of retrofits as turn-of-the-century solar feed-in tariffs begin to expire, set to keep Germany way ahead of the pack.

The Netherlands storage industry association and the Dutch grid operators have proposed a faster phasing out of the net metering scheme to enable wider adoption of batteries among PV system owners. A 30% rebate on the purchase and installation of residential storage systems could help achieve the plan.

The move will encourage private sector renewables companies to be part of the national energy industry, a representative of the regulator told a recent webinar which considered how to accelerate clean energy roll-out in Africa.

The Dutch event has attracted bumper crowds this week as the Dutch solar PV market continues to defy skeptics with its tremendous growth.