Image: AJEL, pixabay

The Dutch solar market grew 40% year on year in 2020, thanks to 2.93 GW of newly deployed capacity, which pushed the Netherlands’ cumulative figure to more than 10.11 GW, according to the “Nationaal Solar Trendrapport 2021” study, which was recently published by consultancy Dutch New Energy.

By comparison, newly deployed PV systems hit 2.57 GW in 2019, 1.69 GW in 2018, and 853 MW in 2017. Of the new capacity installed last year, around 1.09 GW came in the form of residential installations – up from 873 MW a year earlier. The remaining 1.8 GW of capacity came from the commercial and industrial and large-scale market segments.

The consultancy reported that around 5 GW of the PV projects that are being developed under the SDE+ scheme for utility-scale renewables are already operational. Another 16 GW of projects are currently under development or construction, it added. In addition, it revealed that all grid-connected PV systems generated around 7.92 TWh last year, which was enough to cover approximately 6.6% of total electricity demand.

The Netherlands could reach between 38 GW and 125 GW of total installed solar capacity by 2050, according to a recent report by Netbeheer Nederland, the Dutch association of national-regional electricity and gas network operators. In another report released in November 2019, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) predicted that the country could rise to 36 GW of installed solar power by 2030. In October 2017, Energieonderzoek Centrum Nederland issued a forecast under which the nation’s total installed PV capacity could grow to 20 GW by 2035.