Make this stop.
After Eneco made the move to pass on the extra costs that households with solar panels incur when they feed back, Vattenfall and Essent have indicated they will follow the same course. They are still thinking about “a fair distribution of the costs. MP Postma believes that “it would be good if outgoing Minister Rob Jetten and the regulator Authority Consumer and Market (ACM) quickly come up with a proposal to stop this.
Feed-in charges not vehibited.
ACM research shows that under current legislation, energy suppliers are free to set their tariffs as long as they are not unreasonable given the underlying costs. Households with solar panels cause higher costs for energy suppliers than households without solar panels. Therefore, suppliers are allowed to differentiate between households with and households without solar panels.
Immediate consequence.
VVD MP Silvio Erkens sees the feed-in levies as a consequence “of not phasing out the balancing system. This levy allowed solar panel owners to deduct their generated electricity at the same price on their total consumption. CDA party chairman Henri Bontenbal put the blame on PvdA/GL, PVV, SP, PvdD, JA21 and BBB, who blocked the phasing out of the balancing scheme in the Senate. “The scheme was voted down in the Senate. This proliferation of feed-in tariffs is a direct result of that,” he believes.
Payback period.
The feed-in tariff increases the payback time on the investment of solar panels for households slightly. Outgoing Minister Rob Jetten (D66) points out that “solar panels for households even with feed-in costs are still an attractive investment. Only it is important that consumers know what the cost picture looks like. “The ACM will therefore closely monitor that the methods used by energy suppliers are transparent,” he says.
Still good investment.
Energy specialist Laurens Knapen agrees that solar panels are still a good investment. “Below the line, solar panels still yield money for years. A household that consumes 3,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity retains almost 920 euros per year with a feed-in penalty of 270 euros,” Knapen knows. “Those who buy new panels buy them at a much longer price, which cushions the blow of the feed-in cost.”