Netherlands
PV technology status and prospects
Michiel van Schalkwijk, Ecofys on behalf of Novem 		home > annual reports > annual report 2001 >

Fig. 1 - Annen zonnecentrale. The PV installation of Essent in Annen, 180 kWp is the first utility side PV generator in The Netherlands. [Copyright Essent]

General Framework

In the Netherlands, 2001 was one of the most turbulent years for PV ever. The general framework changed completely in comparison to the years before, yielding many opportunities for PV in the long run, but also some short term frustrations.

A number of changes were put through at the same time. Following a re-orientation by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on its Renewable Energy budgets, it was concluded that RE research programmes should be more targeted towards market initiatives rather than initiated by governmental targets. As a result, option-specific programmes were ended and combined in a new Renewable Energy Programme (DEN 2001), in which projects on all different RE-options are to compete in a tender-like structure on price/performance regarding the effect of projects on the 2020 renewable energy production goal of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Especially for PV, this seemed to be a major setback, anticipating the poor chances that a relatively low contribution in renewable energy production compared to what wind-energy and biomass would yield. However, after the first round that ended in August 2001, it appeared that one-third of the available 9 mio EUR had gone to PV research projects. The second round ended in December.

Starting from January 1, 2001, PV together with Solar Domestic Hot Water (SDHW)-systems and heat-pump boilers were added to the list of products of the Energy Premium Regulation (EPR). This EPR is meant for house owners (including housing corporations) who invest in improving their houses energy-wise. The amount of subsidy for PV was 3,40 EUR /Wp, which could be obtained by filling in a simple form with a copy of the receipt. The subsidy can even be increased by 25% when an EPA, an Energy Performance Assessment, of the house is done.

The EPR regulation, being designed as an end user subsidy for existing houses, had some limitations. The first was solved immediately: renewable energy options could also be subsidized for new houses.

The second one was more difficult to solve. The subsidy is basically a return of ecotax, so only parties who pay an ecotax are entitled to receive subsidy when applying measures from the EPR. Due to this fact the most important market segment in the NOZ-PV programme, property developers, were not able to use the EPR properly, which has now led to activities at the Ministry of Economic Affairs to develop a special scheme for this particular group in 2002.

As said, this sudden change in policy led to turbulence amongst the Dutch PV parties who joined in the so-called PV-Manifesto group, demanding consistency in government PV policy and transparent subsidy schemes. The amount of subsidy they requested was 4,5 EUR/Wp for every PV system (not only house-owners) plus a feed-in tariff of 0,23 EUR/kWh, specifically looking at the German neighbours, where the Renewable Energy Law with the 0,50 EUR/kWh for PV energy, boosted the PV market enormously. The Ministry of Economic Affairs thought this was more than they should offer, already having the EPR and DEN2001, and decided not to enforce the covenant again. To underline this decision, they pointed at the relatively low potential for PV as a contributor to national renewable energy production targets in comparison to wind energy and biomass.

Fig. 2 - ECN facade and glass roof. ECN combined different techniques at their offices in Petten, partly new and partly renovation. The facade, staircase and the roof designed by Tjerk Reijenga (BEAR architects) offer space to approximately 70 kWp of PV [Copyright Novem/Hans Pattist] Since 2002, the Dutch PV market has come into quieter waters again. The EPR is set to 3,50 EUR/Wp for 2002, two tenders are going to be published within the Renewable Energy Programme with a total budget of 18 million EUR in which PV can play an important role and the PV-manifesto group seems to evolve into a mature branch organization. The Ministry of Economic Affairs have now agreed that renewable energy options "behind the electricity meter" can contribute significantly to the production goals of 2020.

Utilities like NUON and Eneco Energie have published subsidies of around 1 EUR/Wp in their service area, showing the importance of the image of solar energy in the liberalised green energy market. Furthermore, there still is wide support from environmental organizations like Greenpeace and WWF. The latter are involved in setting up a certificate for solar dwellings (for buildings that use two of three solar options: PV, SDHW or passive solar energy), of which at least 1 500 will be built in the coming years.

With all these end-user-oriented subsidies PV parties are now restructuring in order to enter the consumer market. They will have to look at the development of the German market, where, despite the broad applicability of their support scheme, 89% of the PV volume is sold to private consumers!
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National Programme

The National Photovoltaics Programme (NOZ-PV) that ran from 1997-2000 was extended to June 30, 2001, due to the publication in November 2000 for PV systems larger than 0,5 MWp. The extension included large PV systems and demonstration projects of PV in the built environment.

In July 2001, the Renewable Energy Programme 2001 was published which had two calls open in the course of the year, one ending on August 24th, the other on December 28th, each with a total budget of 9 mio EUR. The results of the latter one are not known to date. Of the first call, one-third of the budget was granted to PV projects. The targets for PV are still set at an equivalent of 10 PJ primary energy in 2020, approximately 1 500 MWp. This has to be filled in by segments that market parties assume to be the most promising. No specific technology preferences (cell-technology, building integrated or not) are given.

For house-owners (including housing corporations), a subsidy of 3,40 EUR/Wp was available within the Energy Premium Regulation (EPR) in 2001, which can be increased by 25% when an Energy Performance Assessment (EPA) is carried out. In 2002, this will be 3,50 EUR/Wp. The size of the system is not limited, with the provision that systems larger than 600 Wp have to be commissioned by an approved installer. Systems smaller than 600 Wp can be plugged into a standard socket.
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Fig.3 – Floriade. At the Floriade 2002 exhibition NUON built the largest roof integrated PV system of the world. 28 000 m2 of transparent PV panels yield 2,3 MWp of installed PV power. (Copyright NUON)

Research and Development

Solar cell research in the Netherlands is mainly concentrating on improving multi crystalline and amorphous silicon production. Research on multi crystalline silicon is concentrated on metallization, passivation and texturing in order to improve the efficiency of the solar cells. New texturing and passivation technology has been proven on lab-scale and R&D is now focussed on industrial implementation. Dutch parties and European partners are jointly working on silicon feedstock in order to obtain a sustainable supply of silicon wafers. The main research parties are ECN, TU-Delft (DIMES), TNO and the Universities of Utrecht, Groningen and Eindhoven. Amorphous silicon still is the most promising thin-film candidate for industrial up-scaling in the coming five to ten years. Akzo Nobel and Shell Solar have joined their competencies in an effort to accelerate the project for an high speed large area production facility for amorphous silicon PV. A newcomer in the thin-film business is Scheuten Solar Systems. They are investigating the possibilities for a thin-film production line.

One of the major advantages of the new Renewable Energy programme is that other technologies that had less priority in the NOZPV programme have an opportunity to grow. Examples are projects for organic and CIS solar cells that have recently started with subsidy from the Renewable Energy programme.

The short term changes in the governmental policy for photovoltaics have certainly influenced those research projects that have short lead times, like the development of inverters and PV building products. Existing products were improved, for instance to fit the demands of the German market, existing projects continued, but no new initiatives were started for these products. It is expected that in the course of 2002 the developmental activities will be taken up again.

Meanwhile, PV and solar thermal building industries have come to an agreement on a National Code of Practice (NPR 7250), in which the National Building Act is applied to the constructional aspects of PV and solar thermal systems showing examples with proven constructions. Furthermore national codes were written for the electrical installation and commissioning.
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Industry Status

The merger of Shell Solar with Siemens Solar has laid the focus of Shell Solar more towards Germany. Contrary to expectations, Shell Solar has not expanded their production facility in The Netherlands.

The inverter manufacturers in the Netherlands are NKF – now part of Draka - Philips, Mastervolt, Exendis, De Drie Electronics and Victron. Mastervolt and NKF finished their new products. Philips finalized their 300 W PV inverter and will actively be in business selling PV systems from April 1st 2002. Also De Drie Electronics came on the market with its 250 W inverter under the name Exendis. Two important newcomers are entering the PV market: Corus is developing a mounting system for crystalline panels on their aluminium roofing product KalZip. Scheuten Solar Systems is already exploring the PV market by selling turn-key PV systems. Laura Starroof, who just finished the development of an amorphous silicon on steel roofing product, went out of business.
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Fig. 4 - Pieter Christiaan Park. In the city of Leeuwarden 15 houses are realised according to the C02 balance concept. The heat demand of the houses is already very low so the CO2 neutrality can be achieved by generating electricity with 34 m2 PV per house. (Copyright Novem/Hans Pattist)

Demonstration, Implementation and Market Development

Demonstration projects in 2001 were still benefiting from the funding from the NOZ-PV programme. NUON realized the world largest roof integrated PV system at the Floriade 2002 exhibition near Amsterdam Airport, totalling 2,3 MWp of semitransparent photovoltaic panels. In the City of the Sun, where 5 MWp are planned, the first large (700 kWp) project was finished at a price of less than 4,5 EUR/Wp, and several other projects were commissioned as well. The installed PV volume in this project is currently over 1 MWp. The total of 5 MWp is expected to be reached end of 2004. Many other attractive and innovative demonstration projects were completed in 2001. They can be seen on two websites that were also produced in 2001: www.pvdatabase.com (of IEA PVPS Task7) and www.pvinfo.nl (in Dutch – by Novem).

A boost was given to the market of small PV systems (< 600 Wp) for households, by the temporarily stackable subsidies from the NOZ-PV programme and the EPR. The project that benefited most was the Sunpower project, carried out by several utilities. Combining these subsidies plus specific utility subsidies, systems were offered for a net price less than 1 EUR/Wp (after tax). Although the numbers are not yet known, it is expected that this led to sales of somewhere between 1 and 2 MWp. The dark side was of course that system houses that could not stack subsidies were having problems to compete with these prices – one of the reasons for the PV manifesto. The stacking possibility was ended in the last quarter of 2001, with an addendum to the EPR.

Notwithstanding that, a couple of companies still managed to achieve a considerable market share in selling small PV systems in the consumer market: Buro Wilders, Stroomwerk, with their Solar Service Buro, and Ecostream, with the Beldezon concept. It is expected that in 2002 these companies will see a vast growth, being prepared for the consumer market.

Informative links to lists of system suppliers are:

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Fig. 5 - Lagune Mayersloot-West). Houses in the Lagune project in Langedijk, which form part of the 5 MWp City of the Sun. The houses have systems varying in size between 3 and 8 kWp, adding up to a total of 130 kWp. Because of smart organization and system design, system prices were achieved of below 5 EUR/Wp (excl VAT). [Copyright Novem/Hans Pattist]

Future Outlook

The market for PV in 2002 will become increasingly focused on the consumer market. With the introduction of the Euro, the EPR has even been increased to around 3,50 EUR/Wp. In addition, the EPA for existing houses and utility subsidies can increase the available subsidies to a mere 4,50 – 5 EUR/Wp. As a renewable energy option, its value is mainly seen "behind the electricity meter", since private households pay the highest energy tariffs. It is expected that municipalities will become increasingly involved.

Developing the consumer market will specifically require attention to quality control, education and training and improvement of the supply chain. It is expected that activities in these fields will expand during 2002.

On the other hand, systems on commercial buildings will still have a place in the PV market because of the green image that the blue panels beam out. Several utilities donate or subsidise PV systems in exchange for a long term green energy contract. A number of PV systems for commercial buildings are still in preparation as part of the former NOZ-PV programme.

Another interesting option with a lot of potential is shown in one of the NOZ-PV projects: the municipality of Waalwijk and REMU are partners in a project in which 0,8 MWp of PV panels are placed in combination with wind turbines on a land-fill area. The wind turbines make the total project financially feasible. Moreover, the PV system decreases the special planning problems for the wind turbines because of their image.

The Renewable Energy programme 2002 will have three calls of 9 mio EUR each during 2002. Looking at the results of 2001, it is expected that PV research projects will use about one-third of the budget for a vast spectrum of research topics, from improving the production processes of multi crystalline silicon to exploring newer cell technologies like CIS and organic cells.

It is expected that in the course of 2002 a subsidy scheme will become available for property developers to increase their possibilities of integrating renewable energy options in new houses, which will renew their interests in this technology.

All in all, the PV market will be maturing in 2002, with the establishment of a professional branch organization and the growth of business-to-consumer sales. Solar energy remains an attractive green energy option in many ways: solar sells!
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Further reading about the Netherlands

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