You could save a lot with solar panels on your roof, but these days are over. Depending on their consumption, private individuals who enter into a new contract (or extend their current contract) sometimes lose hundreds of euros in benefits, writes De Telegraaf. Many energy companies have suddenly charged all kinds of costs in recent months. As a result, it takes many extra years for households to recoup their expensive purchase. Sometimes it takes decades.
This is evident from a survey among hundreds of thousands of consumers by comparator Gaslicht.com. Households with solar panels usually receive hundreds of euros per year back, because they were allowed to offset or ‘balance’ their own generated electricity in the summer with their energy supplier against consumption in the rest of the year. However, that advantage appears to be shrinking, Gaslicht.com states in the newspaper. “The reduction in the energy tax on electricity also means that it takes longer to recoup your solar panels,” says director Ben Woldring.
‘Much less money refunded’
The government stated that consumers would recoup a set of solar panels (price tag 4,000 to 5,000 euros) within seven years. Now it turns out that it takes much longer. Gaslicht.com calculates: ‘Take an average household that uses 1200 cubic meters of gas and 3200 kilowatt hours of electricity. This was returned to around €485 per year via netting on an account of €2000. In March, this household was only able to save €248 on a €2045 bill due to extra costs.
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It is striking that consumers with low energy consumption are particularly hit hard, says Sanne Bins of Gaslicht.com in De Telegraaf. “Households that generate three quarters of their own electricity consumption are on average only €30 cheaper per year than households that do not have solar panels.”
Additional trigger
The cabinet wanted to limit the advantage of canceling self-generated electricity against self-consumption, but the Senate put a stop to this. “Now that netting continues, costs for energy companies are increasing. More and more households are installing panels. Energy companies take care of the costs themselves, which is logical,” says energy expert Isabelle van der Ende of the Milieu Centraal information center.
“For energy suppliers, continuation of the netting scheme is an additional trigger to charge the higher costs directly to solar panel owners,” Woldring concludes.
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According to Minister Jetten, energy companies are allowed to pass on some costs. The providers simply say that they cannot do anything else financially. Politicians will soon set out the amount of the costs in the new Energy Act.
The supervisory authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) saw in recent months that rates have been increased with additional costs. The House of Representatives demands more transparency. “We are now investigating how high these passed-on costs are,” says the watchdog spokesperson.
Also read:
The fact that demand for solar panels is increasing is not necessarily good news: ‘Our power grid is full’
By: Michiel van Renselaar
