The government will open a new subsidy for mandatory batteries at solar parks in 2025. This was announced by Climate and Green Growth Minister Hermans on Budget Day.

Owners of solar parks can thereby receive a subsidy amount per kilowatt-hour of deferred solar energy supplied. If the opening of the subsidy scheme is successful, the first expenditure is expected in 2026, according to the ministry's budget.

160 to 330 megawatts
Jetten reported last spring that by 2025, the cabinet would be 100 million grant would allocate For a battery pilot at solar farms.

Sophie Hermans, the Minister of Climate and Green Growth in the Schoof cabinet on behalf of the VVD, is now putting her money where her mouth is. Whether, ultimately, through the Climate Fund 416.6 million will be available as previously promised by Jetten, however, is not yet known. CE Delft previously calculated that with that budget 160 to 330 megawatts of battery power could be installed.

257 million euros subsidy for mandatory batteries at solar farms
The Ministry of Climate and Green Growth's budget includes €17 million annually for the next few years, for a total of €85 million. This money is allocated from the Climate Fund and therefore included in the ministry's budget. In addition, according to the ministry, 172 million euro is still available over several years from the Climate Fund, but this amount has not yet been definitively allocated and currently has the status of a reservation. Thus, a total of 257 million euro is to be available for the battery obligation at solar parks.

Both the allocation of €85 million and the reservation of €172 million have been revised downwards because of the cut in the development of green hydrogen and batteries that the cabinet had committed to in the Headline Agreement. Indeed, the cabinet will save €300 million annually from next year until 2028 on the Climate Fund - in total 1.2 billion euros.

Conditions
The final Multi-Year Climate Fund Programme 2025, which includes the battery obligation at solar parks as one of the measures, also includes some conditions of the pilot.

For instance, Minister Hermans reports they do not want the amount of the grant to be determined by the applicant, but rather it will be set and/or capped before the applicant. Next, knowledge sharing will be included as a hard condition for subsidy. Finally, the minister wants the pilot not to be limited to batteries at solar farms, but to be extended to broader storage or other possible energy balancing options such as demand response. In doing so, she says, it must be ensured that these techniques can be adequately addressed.

Holland Solar disappointed
Industry association Holland Solar says it is not happy that the originally announced subsidy amount of 416.6 million euros has been reduced by almost 40 per cent.

‘This is disappointing, because introducing batteries at solar farms is an important part of working on balanced energy systems. With batteries, we can ensure that surplus solar power becomes available at times when gas plants are running hard, the sun is not shining as hard, or there is a lack of grid capacity.’

Source: Solarmagazine

From 2025 subsidy for mandatory batteries at solar farms

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