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Netherlands Photovoltaic technology status and prospects Job Swens, SenterNovem, and Willem van der Heul, Ministry of Economic Affairs |
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In 2004, the investments in solar PV in the Netherlands dropped dramatically in
comparison to 2003. This was caused by the simultaneous ending of both the EPR
(Energy Premium Incentive) and the utility subsidies, which together had led to
the excessive support during 2003. As a direct consequence of the ending of both
subsidies, the size of the Dutch PV market went back to the level of the year
2000. First estimates of the amount of PV installed in 2004 point at 4 MW, 20
% of the PV power installed in 2003. Some smaller PV companies, mainly electrical
contractors, stopped their PV activities or ceased to exist, others shifted a
large part of their activities to foreign countries, and in particular to Germany.
For PV RTD on the other hand, new opportunities arose, as the new
scheme for energy RTD activities was introduced in the second half
of 2004. This new scheme is a well-balanced set of support
mechanisms, reaching from new ideas to demonstration, with PV
RTD as one of the priority areas.
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During the first half of 2004, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and SenterNovem developed a new coherent and consistent set of Energy RTD programmes, covering the full range from new unconventional ideas to pilots and demonstration. This new set (fig. 1) consists of two already existing programmes: NEO and IS and three new programmes: EOS LT, EOS Demo and Transition UKR.
The different programmes are targeted as follows (in sequence from fundamental research to implementation):
The priorities for this set of programmes, especially the EOS and Transition UKR programmes, had been determined in 2003 during a wide consultation amongst energy research, industry and policy professionals.
Main criteria for the selection of the preferential technology areas under this scheme are the contribution to the Dutch energy production in 2010, 2030 and 2050 and the level of expertise in the Netherlands. PV came forward as one of the priority areas, with specific strong positions for polycrystalline silicon and inorganic thin film technologies.
The actual EOS programme started with the opening of the first
EOS LT call in October 2004. Due to the high priority for PV RTD
within these programmes expectations are high for the (support of)
PV RTD in the coming years.
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Main players in the fundamental Dutch PV RTD activities are ECN, AKZO Nobel Nederland, TNO, and the Universities of Utrecht, Eindhoven, Groningen and Delft.
The main activities in the field of BOS were the continuation of the development of the wire-free mounting system, (Fig. 2) an intelligent PV facade system and the PV watchdog, showing with two leds the actual status of a module.
At the international level, Dutch PV RTD centres and industries collaborate in several networks, amongst which the CrystalClear project, which is co-ordinated by ECN and started early in 2004. Other PV RTD or PV RTD related international projects with Dutch participation granted in 2004 are PV-ERA-NET and the PV Policy Group.
Consolidated figures showed that the budget for PV RTD in the
Netherlands is decreasing slightly from 16 MEUR in 2002 to 14 MEUR
in 2003
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In 2004 only two companies, DOPT and Scheuten Glas Group were responsible for the total Dutch PV module production. However, a new solar cell production company was founded to start solar cell production in September 2005, while AKZO successfully installed the roll-to-roll pilot line (Fig. 1). Scheuten Glas Group is continuing its activities in cell research.
There was little change in the field of BOS, during 2004. Main
inverter producers are still Mastervolt, Philips and Exendis.
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Though 2004 showed a serious collapse of the PV market, still some interesting
larger demonstration projects could be realised. A good example is the PV facade
of a parking garage in Zwolle, consisting of 840 amorphous silicon solar panels,
powering the automatic parking system of the garage (Fig. 3). Most of the activities
were generated in municipalities already known to actively support PV. The City
of the Sun project again made progress in its goal of installing 5 MW in the new
urban area between Heerhugowaard, Alkmaar and Langedijk.
Apart from such projects, the market for PV decreased dramatically
in 2004. With the phasing out of the investment subsidies, the market for small PV systems for private house owners almost disappeared. This resulted in an estimated total implementation in the Netherlands of less than 4 MW (which is around 20 % of the systems installed in 2003), of 25 % of the 4 MW was installed by private house owners.
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In the national renewable energy policy, no priority is given to market introduction of the more costly RE technologies, like solar PV. For PV on the other hand, the Dutch policy focuses on R&D, especially on technology development for more cost efficient PV systems in the next dec-ade. Nevertheless, existing PV installations may profit from the 0,10 EUR/kWh feed-in tariff of the so-called MEP scheme offers. Also net metering for small domestic systems was allowed in 2004. These two schemes together allow private PV-owners a net subsidy of almost 30 ct/kWh. However, this subsidy is expected to be not enough to reach market figures like in the EPR period (2002-2003).
The final step in the liberalization of the energy markets took place in 2004, but the effect of this on the solar interest was not significant. However, some utilities are setting aside large budgets to increase their installed renewable energy for the growing green energy market. This may be beneficial for PV in the future Furthermore, the announcement of the reduction of the EPC (Energy Performance Standard) to 0,8 (from 1,0) by 2006 for newly built houses may support the future PV market.
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