Outline agreement: energy storage enables energy independence
On the night of Wednesday, May 15, the PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB reached an agreement for the coalition period through 2028. The "outline agreement" commits, among other things, to an affordable and independent energy system. Energy Storage NL sees mainly opportunities but also challenges in the agreement released today.
Coalition commits to energy independence and affordability
The outline agreement presents a number of policy measures for the Dutch energy transition. These focus on affordability, energy independence and own sustainable energy production. The coalition wants to achieve this, among other things, by concluding long-term contracts for gas and scaling up gas production in the North Sea. Wind turbines will be placed at sea as much as possible.
The coalition wants to continue most of the funding from the Climate Fund. However, it cuts planned spending on battery and hydrogen development. The increased carbon tax will be reversed. There are also plans to build two additional nuclear power plants and the customization agreements with industry will be continued. Also, the net-metering scheme will be completely stopped in 2027, the latter making investing in home batteries and decentralized heat storage more interesting.
Addressing grid congestion
The new administration will have to continue to solve grid congestion. The outline agreement still announces few concrete measures. It states that companies should be helped with grid congestion problems and refers to the importance of prioritization when dealing with connection requests to the electricity grid.
Focused energy storage policy crucial
Energy Storage NL is pleased that the outline agreement pays attention to continuing energy transition and promoting energy independence and security of supply. Partly in view of Tennet's recent advice that batteries play an important role in monitoring the security of supply after 2030, the industry association believes additional measures to promote storage are necessary.
In addition, it is good that the Climate Fund is being continued in order to further shape the sustainable economy. However, the industry organization finds it regrettable that the Climate Fund will be used to make savings on the further development of batteries, among other things. Especially the development of new generation batteries is crucial for the energy transition and offers opportunities for a strong Dutch manufacturing industry and reduces the dependence on critical raw materials. The discontinuation of the Growth Fund puts further pressure on this further development.
Energy Storage NL further calls on the new government to make clear choices towards integrated energy systems when further elaborating this energy transition and to include the crucial importance of energy storage and conversion. This requires targeted policy to accelerate energy storage at national, regional and local levels. After all, energy storage in electricity, heat and molecules will have to play a key role in achieving a stable, affordable and independent energy system. For example, energy storage offers opportunities to use more homegrown renewable energy, making us less dependent on imports. In addition, storage can absorb peak loads and thereby improve the efficiency of the grid, leading to cheaper energy bills for households and businesses. Energy storage also helps accelerate the housing challenge. Energy Storage NL looks forward to working with the new cabinet to capitalize on these opportunities.
Read the full agreement and budget appendix here: https://www.kabinetsformatie2023.nl/kabinetsformaties/kabinetsformatie-2023/documenten
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