Flanders Cuts Solar Park Subsidies, Trims Power Bills

Flemish Energy Minister Melissa Depraetere has finalized a reform that stops green power subsidies for large solar installations during moments of negative electricity prices, a move her government says will remove €179 million in costs from the power bill and cut around €6 a year from the average household’s electricity costs. The measure, reported by VRT NWS, tightens the trigger for withdrawing support from six consecutive hours of negative prices to just 15 minutes.

The reform targets the so-called groenestroomcertificaten (green power certificates) that the grid operator pays producers of certified renewable electricity. Because those certificates are financed through the electricity bill, all consumers bear the cost — a structure Depraetere argues has become unfair as solar output has surged.

The Fairness Argument

The minister frames the change as a matter of equity between small rooftop owners and large industrial producers.

“There is a great unfairness in that system,” Depraetere said. “When there is a lot of sun, there is also a lot of electricity, and solar panel owners actually pay money to put their extra energy onto the grid. But at that same moment, many companies with large solar panel installations receive a subsidy for it. That is of course not just.”

At the heart of the problem is a growing glut of solar power. The number of hours with negative electricity prices — where producers effectively must pay to inject power — has risen sharply, up roughly 75% year-on-year, according to Solar365. By early September, Belgium had recorded 408 negative hourly prices, eroding the business case for large installations.

Legal Constraints and Scope

Fully scrapping the subsidy is not permitted under EU state-aid rules, so the reform is confined to negative-price moments. To determine which installations count as “large,” Flanders relies on the EU de-minimis threshold — usually about €65,000 a year, but around €35,000 for transport and €6,500 for agriculture. Because multiple thresholds exist and other government measures count toward them, smaller operators can also fall within scope.

Sector organization ODE Vlaanderen estimates the measure affects at least 2,000 companies, and warned many may be caught off guard.

“Many companies today do not even realize that they too run the risk of falling under the cut,” said Dirk Van Evercooren, the group’s director-general, per Techlink.

Business Pushback

The reform has drawn sharp criticism from employers’ federation Voka, whose CEO Frank Beckx questioned both its timing and its legal footing.

“We wonder where this suddenly comes from,” Beckx told De Tijd. “The electricity price is indeed too high. But both the Flemish and federal government have other mechanisms at their disposal to do something about it.”

He added that the minister “is still treading on legal quicksand. Companies that have invested money in green power rely on the certificates to make their investment profitable.”

Legal risk is not hypothetical. In 2022, then-Energy Minister Zuhal Demir tried to abolish green certificates for solar parks built before 2013, projecting a €1.2 billion saving. Those plans were abandoned as legally unfeasible. Depraetere’s plan was sent to the Council of State for advice before being finalized.

Broader Package

The measure sits atop a wider Flemish energy tax shift that is expected to save an average household €80 a year on electricity from 2028, rising to as much as €150 for homes with a heat pump. The minister also expects the subsidy cut to change behavior, prompting operators to curtail or store output faster and thus reduce grid oversupply.

“And that is then interesting again for people with solar panels,” she said.

What to Watch

Several questions remain unresolved. The final €179 million saving is well below the €290 million to €356 million projected when the plan was first floated in 2025, suggesting a scaled-back design. Depraetere has also faced pressure from N-VA’s Andries Gryffroy to accelerate time-of-use grid tariffs, which the Flemish utility regulator has so far declined to introduce and which grid operator Fluvius says it needs three years to implement. Whether the reform survives legal scrutiny — and whether it meaningfully lifts returns for small solar owners — will determine how far Flanders’ shift from volume subsidies to price-signal discipline is allowed to go.