Feed-in costs for your own electricity: are solar panels still worth it? ‘If you really don’t want to pay, you have to pull the plug on your panels’

It seemed so positive for solar panel owners: in February 2024, the Senate voted against phasing out the net metering scheme. This meant that the tax benefit for returning energy continued to exist.

Yet one party suffered from the netting scheme: the part of the population without solar panels. Because it costs energy companies money to compensate panel owners, rates increased for the rest of the customers.

That is why energy suppliers are now introducing a feed-in tax: it will cost money to supply self-generated energy back to the grid. Every kilowatt hour (kWh) that enters the grid must be paid for immediately.

Why a tariff?

Energy giants see the netting scheme as a stumbling block. “There is currently no incentive to consume or store the energy you generate yourself,” Hidde Kuik of Vattenfall summarizes. “And while the average consumer with solar panels only uses about 30 percent of the self-generated electricity.” This contributes to problems such as imbalance and grid congestion.

Because more and more people have solar panels, the costs for supplying them back are increasing, as the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) also concluded. “We are currently passing on these additional costs in the electricity rates of all our customers. But because solar panel owners are allowed to offset their generated energy against their consumption, customers without panels pay the majority of the costs, and that is unfair,” says Kuik.

“I indeed think that a feed-in tariff is fairer,” agrees professor of Energy Transition at Hanze University of Applied Sciences Martien Visser. “Provided, of course, that it covers the fair additional costs for the supplier.” The ACM is currently investigating whether this cost coverage is actually correct.

What else does it yield?

Generating a lot of electricity therefore becomes less attractive. However, it remains to be seen how much the difference is. Of the energy giants, only Eneco has already set the rates: Every kWh that a consumer puts on the grid costs 11.5 euro cents. Combined with the feed-in fee of 14.5 euro cents, this leaves you with 3 cents per kWh.

Eneco therefore wants panel owners to use the energy they generate more themselves. “You have to avoid turning on the dishwasher in the evening,” says De Voogt. “So be sure to charge devices or do some laundry when the sun is shining.” The question, however, is how the average person in the office should do this remotely. “If you really don’t want to pay for the return, you have to pull the plug on your panels.”

Not an ideal solution, Martien Visser also thinks. Yet experts and company agree on one thing: “It is fairer for people without panels. They will pay a little less.” Eneco estimates that the price per kWh can be reduced by about 6 cents, which means that 75 percent of their customers will gain about 220 euros per year (based on an average household).

Do solar panels remain attractive?

The energy giants are certain: solar panels can still be easily turned off. “The stimulation of netting is actually no longer necessary, but it remains. People earn back their panels so quickly that they can bear these extra costs,” says De Voogt.

However, Visser by no means agrees with this. According to him, purchasing solar panels is certainly becoming less attractive. “This applies in particular to purchasing more panels than you need. And that’s a shame, because as a society we prefer ‘sun on the roof’ to ‘sun in the meadow’.”

Does a feed-in tariff encourage panel owners to be green? “Perhaps people who have their own charging station will charge their electric car in the afternoon. Or people with enough money and space install a battery or an electric boiler. However, that is only a very limited portion of the millions of households that now have panels.”