Solar panel owners have paid about 10 percent more in feed-in tariffs for their electricity in the past quarter. As a result, it is taking longer and longer to recoup the cost of your solar panels.
Energy comparison site Overstappen.nl compared the fixed contracts of 21 suppliers. Compared to March, small solar panel owners in particular noticed that their bill was higher. These are households with seven panels on the roof and an annual consumption of 2,100 kWh. If they conclude a contract now, the feed-in tariffs are almost 20 percent higher than in March.
Medium-sized households (twelve panels, 3,600 kWh annual consumption) pay more than 15 percent more. But households with more than seventeen panels only see a small increase. The average cost increase is therefore 10 percent.
“These large households already pay a lot of feed-in tariffs. Sometimes more than 1,000 euros per year,” says Tom Schlagwein, energy expert at Overstappen.nl. “For households that feed less electricity back into the grid, the costs were not too bad. But these customers are also becoming more expensive for suppliers, so they are increasing the costs.”
Comparison site Independer confirms in conversation with NU.nl that the feed-in tariffs have “certainly not decreased” in recent months. Almost all suppliers now charge feed-in tariffs in one way or another.
More difficult to predict how much electricity is available
Usually it concerns a fixed amount per kilowatt hour fed back. Due to the growth in the number of solar panels, suppliers are faced with increasing so-called imbalance costs. It is becoming more difficult to predict how much electricity is available and whether the electricity can be sold at a reasonable price.
Due to the netting scheme, solar panel owners can offset their fed-in electricity against their consumption. As a result, they always get a good price for their generated energy, while the electricity price on a sunny, windy day regularly drops below 0 euros.
‘Feed-in tariffs will continue to rise in the coming period’
Schlagwein expects feed-in tariffs to continue to rise in the coming period. “Solar panels are still being added and that means that there is more electricity that suppliers and grid operators have to store in one way or another.”
“Suppliers sometimes also adjust their brackets and that can cause a sudden increase,” says energy expert Pim Holstvoogd from Independer. Brackets are the fixed costs per kWh. But these increase as you feed more electricity back in. “If you end up in a higher bracket, it can cost you a lot of extra costs.”
Not all suppliers increase feed-in tariffs
Schlagwein points out that not all suppliers have increased their feed-in tariffs. Outliers are Vattenfall, Mega, Pure Energie and Coolblue Energie. Energiedirect, ENGIE and Essent kept their rates the same. Eneco and Oxxio actually lowered their feed-in tariffs.
According to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM), households with solar panels that had taken out a new energy contract in March had to pay approximately 10 percent higher feed-in tariffs than a month earlier. In addition, eleven energy suppliers charged more feed-in tariffs than households with panels received for electricity supplied.