Yesterday, there was quite a fuss over a news item (source) involving one of our national energy suppliers (Vandebron) who are all about being environmentally friendly. Energie from green sources (Wind, Solar) and gas compensated by investments into new forests and such. This energy company announced it wants to pass on the additional costs of energy to its distributed suppliers in cases when too much energy is available on the grid. When too much energy on the grid, the supply is higher than the demand, the energy prices drop below zero. The national energy companies have the pay the cost of this.
the Topic of Fuss
Part of the energy this company gets from professionally operated solar farms. Added to that, they also get energy supplied by the consumers (businesses and citizens) when they generate their own energy by e.g. solar panels on their roofs. The Dutch law says: The surplus of the generated energy can be provided back to the grid and must be compensated by the national energy company at the same rate as the energy rate when consuming energy from the grid. Since many Dutch households have fixed-rate contracts, with rates always above zero, this law drives up the costs for these national energy suppliers. Whenever the energy rates on the free market drop below zero, the national energy suppliers not only have to pay the consumer for the energy it consumes but also all the consumers that are also producers and delivering energy to the grid.
Thus far, the additional costs to the national energy suppliers were passed on to all their contract holders, the consumers of energy. With this new direction, the aforementioned national energy supplier will funnel the negative energy costs back to the energy producers. They're saying it's not fair for customers who don't produce extra energy to foot the bill for negative energy prices. They're also hinting that those local energy producers should share some of the burden.
One Sided or Selfish Views and Opinions
Most of the peeps speaking out on social media are the ones who own solar panels, generate energy and send the surplus back to the grid. These are the same people who won't turn off their solar panels even when the market doesn't need more energy.
In the conversations I had with various peeps, them being not-amused at best, it seemed many are viewing this decision very one-sided. All the financial perks they've gotten by investing in and operating their own tiny solar farm, are taken for granted and forgotten.
the Deal for Long
To help speed up the transition to green energy, my government (the Dutch) defined rules and offers incentives. The goal was to encourage households to invest in solar panels to generate their own energy and help others when not all generated energy is used within the household. While there wasn't much interest at first, things have really taken off in recent years. The market seems ready for people to generate their own energy at home or at their businesses. For at least a decade, perhaps even two, my government stimulated green energy production by giving subsidies to households (and businesses) who invested in solar panels. Subsidies to buy and install the equipment, as well as mechanisms to cover the running costs, the aforementioned income when supplying the surplus of energy back to the national energy grid. This resulted initially in a return on investment (ROI) of somewhere between 7 and 10 years. In recent years the ROI came down a lot and is not more than a few years. The latter has not only to do with the higher (global) energy prices but also because the efficiency of the solar panels itself has increased quite a lot.
the Effects by Now
Now we're seeing the outcome of mentioned success: We're dealing with an energy surplus quite often. Many weekends we can see negative energy prices. Even outside the weekends, we experience more periods of the day with negative energy prices. I suppose it is time to get rid of all the subsidies. The market is created. The market may even be close to saturated.
Distributed Solar Storage
I'd argue that we should push for distributed and localisation of the energy system. Not just the distributed setup of energy production as we have now, but also storing energy locally when there's too much of it. There are lots of solutions that can be invested in to make this happen, but my government hasn't set up plans or incentives for this. That's why not many people are interested in solving this locally. Of course, it's not easy to find enough neighbours, or people in the same geographical area, who want to come together and figure out a solution, invest in it, get it installed and eventually run it. But I really wish for people to step up. This situation really frustrates me. They want to benefit from society, but they don't want to help solve problems that they're partly causing.
The Learnings
Slowly, we're seeing the government realize what's happening because of all their support. Compensations for supplying energy back to the national energy grid will be reduced over the next few years. They changed the laws for this. And honestly, that makes sense. The government helped start the transition, and now that we're past the initial struggles, the rest can be left up to the free market. After all, we're in a free-market economy. But I'd like to see some programs set up to speed up local energy storage. I think it could use a bit of help.
Dreaming of my Own Energy Plant
Unfortunately, I am not able to install solar panels or put a windmill on my own property. I live in an apartment building without any area that I can call my own, except the apartment itself. I have to come to agreements with the rest of the owners n the building to use the common areas. Over the past 13 years, I tried convincing others in the building to invest in our own solar system. However, the majority doesn't want to hear this, let alone invest in it. At the same time, we can't find a majority vote to allow the installation of solar panels on our roofs, even when only a selected few invest in the setup and running costs. Such a shame.
Last but not Least
What about your situation?
Do you generate green energy?
Do your energy suppliers provide green energy options?
How is your government dealing with the transition from fossil fuels to green forms?
What do you think of the green energy debate?
all media by edje unless stated otherwise
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