Fewer solar panels installed in the Netherlands as costs rise

While the Netherlands has seen an annual rise in the number of solar panels, installations are slowing as households face rising costs. The end of the net metering scheme and energy companies' increasing feed-in costs for surplus energy could be behind the drop.

Higher costs for solar panel owners in the Netherlands

In previous years, soaring energy prices led to a spike in solar panel installations in the Netherlands, with an increase of 30 to 40 percent. Based on figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), this increase was significantly lower in 2024 at just 12 percent.

An overview from comparison site Overstappen.nl showed that households with solar panels are paying more on top of levies and taxes, reports De Telegraaf. In fact, solar panel owners are paying up to 1.000 euros more per year than they were previously due to a rise in feed-in costs that households have to pay to energy companies for the surplus energy that they don’t use. 

Around a third of Dutch households have solar panels installed, and a quarter of them produce more electricity than they use in a year.

Dutch government to scrap net metering scheme from 2027

At the end of 2024, the government voted in favour of scrapping the net metering scheme. With the end of this regulation, solar panel owners will no longer be able to deduct any excess electricity from their energy bills. 

The netting scheme allowed solar panel owners to recover the costs of installation, but cost the government billions of euros every year. Strain on the grid, as more households feed excess energy into the grid, has also been cited as a justification for scrapping the scheme.

From January 1, 2027, households with solar panels will instead receive compensation for the energy they feed back to the grid, most likely at a lower rate. The hope is that this will encourage households to produce more power themselves and reduce reliance on the grid.  

Without the netting scheme and with higher feed-in costs, it will take households between 15 and 20 years to earn back the costs of installing solar panels, rising from five years previously. According to the Mileu Centraal knowledge centre and researchers at CBS, having solar panels can still reduce your expenses, especially if you use most of the electricity generated.