Belgium's Flanders region will be offering a premium to its denizens for installing solar panels on residential rooftops as of January 1, 2021. The state support for all such rooftop solar installations will be up to €1,500 ($1,693) to help cover average system costs that range between €5,000 to €5,500 ($5,646 to $6,211).
This mechanism was approved by the Flemish government recently, allocating a total of €32 million ($36 million) for the scheme that comes to an end post 2024.
Belgian business newspaper De Tijd reports that the support will come as €300 ($338) per installed kW for the first 4 kW and €150 ($169) per installed kW for systems between 4 kW and 6 kW. It says the premium is applicable only to existing homes to avoid oversubsidies.
The newspaper stated that the administration under Flemish Minister of Energy Zuhal Demir is working on creating a new support mechanism for larger installations between 40 kW to 2 MW sizes along with medium-sized wind power systems. But subsidies for this scheme, with a total budget of €25 million ($28 million) in the 2021 budget, will be available through competitive auctions.
Flanders has a target to produce 3,544 GWh of solar power and 3,030 GWh of wind power generation out of 25,074 GWh of renewable energy by 2020 to bring down its energy imports from neighboring European nations. The target was set under the previous Energy Minister Bart Tommelein.
According to Demir's official website, in 2018, the regional government paid €1.3 billion ($1.47 million) in green energy certificates through electricity bills. "It is about money raised through the bill of the electricity consumer that is used to make investments in renewable electricity profitable. In the past, subsidies were not adjusted quickly enough to reflect the lower investment costs and returns required to invest, resulting in massive oversubsidies. I want to avoid that," said Demir.
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