Last night the House of Representatives debated the ‘solar subsidy’. It was already decided three years ago that this subsidy would end now, but this requires a bill that has not yet been approved.
Government money
It is like this. If you have solar panels and the sun is shining, you use little or no electricity. You will then only receive a bill from your energy supplier for the amount of electricity that you have consumed more than you have supplied back. That’s called salting.
Former Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Eric Wiebes, already explained in 2019 why this system is being abolished. “In the long term, no subsidy will be needed for solar panels, because those things are rapidly becoming cheaper. And the energy transition in the long term no longer has to cost government money anyway,” he said at the time.
Last night, the cabinet debated the bill that is needed to abolish the netting scheme. Because the PvdA, GroenLinks and PVV do not agree with this, the cabinet does not have enough votes in the Senate. The coalition does not have a majority in the Senate.
Left parties are against it
Left-wing parties are against abolishing the subsidy because they first want to see how the cabinet will make it attractive for landlords to continue to invest in solar panels. Otherwise, tenants will suffer, the PvdA and GroenLinks fear.
During the debate, the PVV seemed to agree with the abolition because the party ‘is against any climate measure’, and therefore also against this proposal from Energy Minister Rob Jetten. Shortly after the debate, PVV leader Geert Wilders via Twitter However, they still manage to vote against the law, so that a majority in the Senate again seems a long way off.
