More and more people want to make their homes more sustainable, according to figures from government services RVO† In the first quarter, it registered three times as many subsidy applications as last year, for, among other things, cavity wall insulation and heat pumps. This year, more than 17,000 applications were received from January to March, compared to nearly 6,500 applications in the same period in 2021.
This RVO oversees the distribution of the Investment Subsidy Renewable Energy and Energy Saving (ISDE). People can get money from that pot if they have made their home more sustainable. It is not possible to submit a grant application prior to the job.
Grants can be requested for several measures or devices per application. Anyone who insulates his floor and his roof must therefore submit one application for two measures. In the first quarter, subsidies were requested for more than 37,000 measures and equipment.
Increased energy prices
In all, 52.6 million euros in subsidy was claimed in the first quarter, of which around 40 million was claimed by private individuals. Half of the money was requested for insulation of, for example, cavity walls, roof and floors. Heat pumps are in second place, followed at a considerable distance by solar water heaters.
The increase is probably due to the increased energy prices, although the RVO cannot make a firm statement about this. The government service also takes into account that the ISDE scheme was less known last year, because it had just been revised.
Delay in the numbers
CBS reported this morning that energy was 157 percent more expensive last month than a year earlier. One of the causes is the war in Ukraine, but its effects are not yet reflected in the RVO figures.
“There is a significant delay,” said a spokesperson for the RVO. “There is time between the decision to make it more sustainable, the actual start of the job and the completion. You can only submit a subsidy application after the work has been completed.”
For example, if you want a heat pump, you have to wait months for it due to a major shortage of technical personnel. The majority of the applications that came in in the first quarter are therefore for jobs that were completed last year. However, according to the RVO, it is very likely that the number of applications will increase further in the coming period.
Twelve times as many chores
The cabinet launched the National Insulation Program on Saturday to generate more energy to spare† Until 2030, The Hague is allocating billions to better insulate 2.5 million of the 8 million houses. Priority is given to the 1.5 million homes with an energy label of E or worse.
It is also all hands on deck in the insulation sector, says branch organization Venin in de Volkskrant† Companies have seen the number of quote requests increase sixfold in recent months. The number of assignments that resulted from this doubled, which means that the number of jobs is twelve times as large.
The advantage of the high energy prices is that, for example, a heat pump relatively fast will pay for itself within four or five years. With a lower gas price, the payback period is two to three years longer.
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