NO SUBSIDY FOR RENEWABLE HEATERS

BLOGPOST, Wed 6 July 2011, 11:13, Maickel van Haren

In 2008 there was a commitment by the Dutch government for a subsidy (renewable heating for existing homes) for 3 years, where 3 x 20 million euros would be available for solar water heaters and heat pumps.

Companies such as ourselves made investments based on that commitment by the government. Unfortunately, we now have to find out that the government (Mister Verhagen, minister of Economy, Agriculture and Innovation) did not allocate any budget to this scheme in the last year of the subsidy. Worse still, there is no clear answer if there will still be some or if there will not be any allocation. More clarity will be given after the summer was minister Verhagen's reaction.
Therefore the market for solar water heaters has since been on hold.
People will not buy a solar water heating system and wait for the subsidy to come through, they want to know before they buy it.

If the government would clearly state that there will be no subsidy anymore, the market will shrink, but not as bad as with the current uncertainty. At present, therefore, the Dutch solar companies are looking into the options for legal actions to get clarity from the government. It's a real shame that it needs to come to such actions and that the Dutch government is coming back on their made promises.

Of course we in the Netherlands also need cuts in the government budget as does every European country, but the government should not destabilise an entire market by withdrawing commitments they already made. The beauty of this arrangement was that it was actually cost neutral for the government. With a 20 million grant, the public bought around 100 million in products and installation work. From this 100 million almost 20 million went back in the treasury through VAT.

For our company Solesta BV, manufacturer of solar water heaters, the subsidy has helped to increase the sales quantity, so production scale and costs have steadily decreased. Last year the system price went down with 10%. We were able to introduce a new system based on Solesta’s existing technology, but with a new collector. This allows the price of the system to be lowered with about 20%, so the lost subsidy is to a large extend compensated. But with the last subsidy share we would have been able to do even more. And, of course, the same would apply for similar companies. 
Sustainable energy usage would have been increased, the economy would have been stimulated and the costs for the government are zero!

For more information about Solesta check www.solesta.com.

Maickel van Haren