Investing in green energy much less attractive: 'Earnings model under pressure'

At times, so much green energy is generated that it's impossible to generate any revenue. The power can't be fed into the grid, which isn't yet designed to handle such large volumes. "The business case is under pressure," says solar park owner Roemer.

At times, it even costs money to generate electricity. 2025 is already a record year for the number of hours with a negative electricity price. The number of hours during which it costs money to generate electricity is currently 468 (458 hours for the entire year of 2024).

Turn off park

This makes it increasingly cheaper for businesses to turn off their farms when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, because they don't have to pay for returning power. "At maximum production, the product is worthless," says energy expert Martien Visser, former lecturer at Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen.

Entrepreneur Roemer also occasionally deploys his solar farms. His solar farm in Klarenbeek has over 40,000 solar panels, which can supply electricity to around 8,000 households. He also has a smaller farm in Apeldoorn in partnership with the municipality.

But Roemer is seeing his business model come under pressure. Something he absolutely didn't expect when he opened the park in Klarenbeek in 2021. He says he made a lot of money during the energy crisis that arose after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That provided a boost.

That fat is now disappearing again. Because, in addition to increased expenses for higher insurance premiums (due to copper theft), inflation, and grid connection costs, the negative electricity price makes it unprofitable to invest in green energy.

Few new parks built

"The impasse is huge," says energy expert Visser. He says that few farms are being built at the moment. He believes this is also because grid operators are saying 'no' to entrepreneurs because there simply isn't enough space on the full electricity grid.

And then consider that the Netherlands has ambitious green energy ambitions. Although significant progress has been made in recent years, the collective target of thirty regions to generate 55 terawatt hours (TWh) of renewable energy within five years will not be achieved. The expectation is that at least 35 TWh of sustainable electricity will be generated by 2030.

"The need for green energy is enormous," says Roemer. He emphasizes that something needs to be done, especially because the demand for energy is only increasing.

Store electricity?

Visser agrees and proposes a few possible solutions. He believes it's important to better align supply and demand, with demand being higher on sunny or windy days.

Moreover, he believes significant progress can be made in electricity storage. Because even when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining, businesses and households still consume electricity. Visser is considering storage in large-scale batteries . He also mentions converting sustainable electricity into green hydrogen.

Roemer would also like to see the subsidy system tightened. He believes that solar farms, which are currently shut down for some time, are currently being ignored.

Meanwhile, grid operator Tennet is also busy. After years of preparation, the operator of the Dutch high-voltage grid is starting drilling in the Delta Works today in Zeeland, so that power cables can be laid for offshore wind farms. Several 2 gigawatt connections will be installed. That's considerably more capacity than is currently used for offshore wind farms.

'Price continues to fluctuate'

Will all this cause the price of electricity for consumers to increase or decrease? Visser doesn't think so. "The average price won't decrease, but it will fluctuate more. One moment electricity is cheap, and the next it's much more expensive."

Residents of Schiermonnikoog are unhappy with plans to lay a power cable in a protected Wadden Sea area: