118 Krisztina de Bruyn-Szendrei et al.
spatial planning will be among the most important factors for success. For smallscale rooftop applications of solar PV, the challenge is to ensure that newly built
dwellings have a better orientation towards the sun. For larger- scale projects,
especially ground- mounted solar parks, spatial planning needs to consider
alternative uses of areas so that opportunity costs remain low. They should also
consider whether an area is acceptable for residents, especially when projects are
adjacent to their villages and towns and therefore clearly visible by the local
population. From the stakeholder interviews, a clear recommendation is to
involve local stakeholders in the decision- making process for ground- mounted
parks as early as possible. This helps to make people ‘co- owner’ of the project
and enable them to propose modifications to the project plan. Recent examples
of solar- park plans in the northern region of the Netherlands have shown that,
if project developers do not take into account public opinion and consider
different design options, public opinion might quickly change and prevent the
implementation of large- scale projects in the long term. This is supported by
findings by Nikas et al. (2018) which indicate that ‘soft measures’ focusing, for
instance, on behavioural change and public acceptance can lead to more sustainable low- emission pathways than measures focusing on mainly providing
financial incentives.
The findings from the stakeholder consultation moreover suggest that several
of the risks discussed in this chapter are augmented by uncertainties about
policy development and spatial planning, and a lacking larger picture of the
overarching climate and energy perspectives of scaling up solar PV. As a result,
optimal investment decisions as perceived by individual stakeholders may not
be optimal from macro- level economic, social, energy, and climate perspectives.
This calls for a ‘grand design’ solution or a strategy to ‘fix’ the grid- balancing,
finance, and spatial planning issues. Part of the grand design could be a prioritisation of risks to be tackled first, which would not be driven purely by efficiency
of resource allocation but also by cost- effective use of solar PV for realising the
Dutch contribution to European energy and climate goals.
Conclusions
The Netherlands lags behind its European commitments for renewable
energy production by 2020. Despite the adoption of a new package with
measures to intensify renewable energy capacity investment, according to a
review by ECN (ECN, 2017) and a recent European Commission report on
member states’ compliance with the Renewable Energy Directive (European
Commission, 2017), the country is expected to fall short of the 14% renewable energy target by 2020. Biomass is currently the main source of renewable energy in the Netherlands and wind energy deployment has recently
accelerated. However, for compliance with 2020 and future targets, solar
energy opportunities will also need to be utilised. For that, solar- based energy
will have to catch up strongly as, for example, solar PV was only responsible
for less than 1% of Dutch electricity production in 2017 (about 14% of the
spatial planning will be among the most important factors for success. For smallscale rooftop applications of solar PV, the challenge is to ensure that newly built
dwellings have a better orientation towards the sun. For larger- scale projects,
especially ground- mounted solar parks, spatial planning needs to consider
alternative uses of areas so that opportunity costs remain low. They should also
consider whether an area is acceptable for residents, especially when projects are
adjacent to their villages and towns and therefore clearly visible by the local
population. From the stakeholder interviews, a clear recommendation is to
involve local stakeholders in the decision- making process for ground- mounted
parks as early as possible. This helps to make people ‘co- owner’ of the project
and enable them to propose modifications to the project plan. Recent examples
of solar- park plans in the northern region of the Netherlands have shown that,
if project developers do not take into account public opinion and consider
different design options, public opinion might quickly change and prevent the
implementation of large- scale projects in the long term. This is supported by
findings by Nikas et al. (2018) which indicate that ‘soft measures’ focusing, for
instance, on behavioural change and public acceptance can lead to more sustainable low- emission pathways than measures focusing on mainly providing
financial incentives.
The findings from the stakeholder consultation moreover suggest that several
of the risks discussed in this chapter are augmented by uncertainties about
policy development and spatial planning, and a lacking larger picture of the
overarching climate and energy perspectives of scaling up solar PV. As a result,
optimal investment decisions as perceived by individual stakeholders may not
be optimal from macro- level economic, social, energy, and climate perspectives.
This calls for a ‘grand design’ solution or a strategy to ‘fix’ the grid- balancing,
finance, and spatial planning issues. Part of the grand design could be a prioritisation of risks to be tackled first, which would not be driven purely by efficiency
of resource allocation but also by cost- effective use of solar PV for realising the
Dutch contribution to European energy and climate goals.
Conclusions
The Netherlands lags behind its European commitments for renewable
energy production by 2020. Despite the adoption of a new package with
measures to intensify renewable energy capacity investment, according to a
review by ECN (ECN, 2017) and a recent European Commission report on
member states’ compliance with the Renewable Energy Directive (European
Commission, 2017), the country is expected to fall short of the 14% renewable energy target by 2020. Biomass is currently the main source of renewable energy in the Netherlands and wind energy deployment has recently
accelerated. However, for compliance with 2020 and future targets, solar
energy opportunities will also need to be utilised. For that, solar- based energy
will have to catch up strongly as, for example, solar PV was only responsible
for less than 1% of Dutch electricity production in 2017 (about 14% of the