Netherlands

Solar project developers see fewer opportunities to build PV facilities in the northern Netherlands, as grid bottlenecks are becoming worse.

The Netherlands added 1.94 GW of new solar to reach 16.85 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity at the end of June 2022, which was beyond initial expectations.

New rules in the Netherlands will allow new entities known as “congestion service providers” as intermediaries between grid operators and power plant operators, in order to make optimal use of the network.

Solar has dominated the 2022 round of the SDE++ program for large-scale renewable energy projects in the Netherlands, accounting for around 90% of all pre-assigned capacity. About 2,269 MW of PV project proposals have been accepted.

According to state-run agency RVO, solar may reach 17.6 GW of installed capacity by year-end, thus becoming able to cover more than 12% of the country’s electricity demand.

Vattenfall and Greenchoice have agreed to adjust sustainability claims on their websites in response to a request from the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets. The companies reportedly used vague comparisons to support their claims.

Rob Jetten, the Dutch energy minister, said the nation’s energy suppliers should implement billing practices for net-metered solar on a yearly basis, and not on a monthly or quarterly basis.

The new measure should come into force on January 1. It is part of the Tax Plan 2023 package and still needs final parliamentary approval.

The remarkable performance of PV in the Netherlands in August was due to more sun, higher generating capacity, and falling energy demand.

The Dutch transmission system operator said that more grid capacity is needed to address the continuous growth of wind and solar energy, as well as that of electromobility and heat pumps.