Solar PV has emerged as the biggest winner in the Netherlands' SDE+autumn 2017 round. Out of 3.33 GW capacity awarded, 3,945 solar projects bagged 1.91 GW, followed by wind grabbing 1.13 GW. A total of 4,215 large scale renewable energy projects were awarded.
PV has secured a share of 38% or €2.32 billion ($2.76 billion) of the total budget of €6 billion ($7.13 billion) for this round; wind secured the second largest piece of the pie, winning 46% or €2.76 billion ($3.28 billion).
"The large cost price decreases that we have seen in solar PV in recent yearshave made this possible," wrote Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate, Eric Wiebes in a letter addressed to the country's Parliament.
In November 2017, Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland(RVO) – the Netherlands Enterprise Agency received 5,783 applications for large scale renewable energy projects. All this represented 5.3 GW of capacity. With 5,456 projects subscribed for PV, it attracted the highest interest with 3.22 GW capacity.
Before that, the administration selected 4,530 projects in the SDE+Spring 2017 round. Here, also PV won the largest share with 4,386 projects representing 2.35 GW, according to NewsBase website.
RVO has launched the SDE+Spring 2018 round with two categories for solar PV. Subsidies will be available for PV projects with 15 kW to 1 MW capacity, another category will be for projects over 1 MW capacity.
SDE+ or Stimulation of Sustainable Energy Productionis a program of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy. It compensates renewable energy producers for generating renewable energy, covering the difference between cost price and the market price of these technologies.
Netherlands reported a cumulative PV capacity of 2.7 GW at the end of 2017, which means that the market will quickly grow due the huge solar pipeline awarded in the SDE+ auctions (see Netherlands' Cumulative PV Capacity Hits 2.7 GW).