Solar power in the Netherlands

Solar power in the Netherlands has an installed capacity of around 23,904 megawatt (MW) of photovoltaics as of the end of 2023.

[1] Market research firm GlobalData projects Dutch solar PV capacity could rise to 55,000 MW (55 GW) by 2035.

[2] Longer-term projections from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research estimate national PV capacity could reach 180 GW by 2050.

[7] 2013 According to the Dutch grid operators, solar capacity grew to a cumulative power of 655.4 MW at the end of 2013 [8] 2014 By August 2014, the total had reached 1 GW mark for the first time.

[10] 2016 The largest solar installation in the Netherlands, the 6 MW array at the Wadden-Island Ameland was officially opened in June 2016.

[22] Some of the advantages of small scale residential Solar include eliminating the need for extra land, keeping cost saving advantages in local communities and empowering households to become prosumers of renewable electricity and thus raising awareness of wasteful consumption habits and environmental issues through direct experience.

[23] In November 2014 SolaRoad, the world's first experimental solar cycle path, was opened in the village of Krommenie.

The aim of the project is to test the practicality and cost efficiency of embedding solar panels into a cycle path.

[30] In September 2018 solar panels were installed in the road surface of one of the shoulder lanes of the A2 motorway near Maarssen.

[31] On 7 March 2019 a 2-year pilot project with a 100 meter long solar bus lane opened on the N218 in Spijkenisse.

[32] One week after opening damage was found to the top layer of the solar road and the bus lane was closed for traffic.

Investigation found that the solar panel and top layer had detached from the underlying concrete and repair would not be possible.

In July 2019 the province of South Holland made the decision to discontinue the pilot and the solar road was removed.

[33] A Similar pilot project opened on 7 March 2019 with a 50 meter long solar road on the N232 in near Schiphol.

[40] In February 2020 solar panels were installed in a cycle path on the Westerweg near Den Burg, Texel.

However, due to construction errors only half of the panels are properly connected and thus the actual generated electricity is a lot lower than originally estimated.