In 2011, the National Action Plan on Solar Power (NAZ), drawn up by various organisations and institutions under the guidance of DNV GL, set the target of 4 GWp solar power in 2020 in the Netherlands.
Due to the success of solar power in recent years, the growth scenario for solar power is developing towards an accelerated scenario of no less than 10 GWp in 2023. Consequently, solar power supports the Energy Agreement and will supply 15% of renewable electricity by 2023. This is equivalent to 7% of the total electricity demand in the Netherlands. The major driving force behind this growth is the net metering scheme, which is currently guaranteed until 2020. Together with the expected flexible energy prices in the coming years, also for low-volume electricity consumers, innovations can be encouraged to help consumers use their own generated electricity as much as possible, for example through storage systems. This will make it possible to prevent overloading of the electricity grid and avoid unnecessary investments associated with grid reinforcements.
NAZ calls upon the government to join forces with the solar power sector to reach an appropriate arrangement that not only provides security for owners of solar power systems, but also provides sufficient room for innovations to encourage consumers to use their own generated electricity. The recently established Dutch Society for Sustainable Energy (NVDE) can provide a good platform for discussions between the parties involved in this field.
Growth scenarios
The success of solar power in recent years prompted NAZ to look further than the horizon and to outline growth scenarios beyond 2020. NAZ applies a high and a low growth scenario and bases itself on a study of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) and DNV GL into the potential for the generation of solar power on the roofs of homes and non-residential buildings in the Netherlands. According to this study, the current roof potential is approximately 70 GWp based on the current technology (‘Growth scenario Low’). When technology improvements and the potential outside urban areas are included, the potential for solar power increases to 150 GWp (‘Growth scenario High’). In the coming years, solar power will contribute significantly to the electricity supply in the Netherlands, making a high growth rate of 10 GWp in 2023 attainable.
National Action Plan on Solar Power
Since 2011, the National Action Plan on Solar Power has been committed to identifying and eliminating the societal barriers of solar energy. The National Action Plan on Solar Power 2016 can be downloaded here. In total, 20 actions were formulated with the intention, among other things, to provide consumers with good, objective and complete information, guarantee the quality of solar energy systems, develop local solar energy projects and stabilise the development of the solar energy market. NAZ is a partnership, led by DNV GL, with Holland Solar, Mastervolt, Netbeheer Nederland, Stichting Monitoring Zonnestroom, Sun Projects, TKI Solar Energy and Utrecht University.