Home battery subsidies: what exists?

Some municipalities and provinces run their own scheme for home batteries or energy storage. These funds come and go: budgets are limited, conditions differ and a scheme that runs this year may be closed the next. A national overview that is always current therefore does not exist.

Check two places before you sign: the Energiesubsidiewijzer by Milieu Centraal (Dutch), which searches subsidies and loans by postcode, and your own municipality's website. If you live in our service area around Amsterdam, we check during the quote whether anything is running at your address.

Which schemes are actually running right now, with amounts and political developments, is tracked in our blog on the current state of home battery subsidies.

If you pay Dutch income or corporate tax, a battery may qualify for the energy investment allowance (EIA) (Dutch). You then deduct 40 percent of the investment from taxable profit, on top of normal depreciation. The investment must meet the requirements of the Energy List and you report it to the RVO within three months of ordering.

The bar is high for a private home though: the Energy List requires a system of at least 5 kilowatts of power and at least 15 kilowatt-hours of storage, coupled to substantial on-site generation or to trading software. Most home batteries of 5 to 10 kWh do not reach that. For business premises with a large solar roof, the EIA is often worthwhile.

The national Warmtefonds finances home batteries through its energy-saving loan: up to 8,500 euros, for owner-occupiers who already have solar panels or install them at the same time. The battery must be connected by an installer (no plug-in batteries) and sit on your own property. With a household income below 60,000 euros the interest rate is 0 percent. The conditions are published by the Warmtefonds (Dutch).

Be sharp on sales talk here. The Warmtefonds itself warns against sellers who present the loan as a subsidy or a free battery. It remains borrowed money that you repay, just on favourable terms.

One more point if you want to combine the loan with the VAT route: the Warmtefonds requires that you use the battery privately only, while the VAT refund is precisely about trading power. Put that combination to the Warmtefonds first.

Whether a home battery adds up ultimately does not depend on a subsidy pot, but on what you do with it. The basis is using more of your own solar power instead of exporting it cheaply. A dynamic energy contract adds trading on top: charge when power is cheap, discharge when it is expensive.

And in regions where the grid is congested, grid operators now pay households whose battery helps relieve the grid. How that works is covered under grid steering and in our blog on the grid congestion payment. Still weighing up whether a battery suits you? The comparison with or without a home battery lines up the trade-offs; purchase costs are covered under home battery costs.

We do not sell batteries with the word subsidy as bait: nationally it simply does not exist. In the quote we work with what does. We check whether the VAT route realistically fits you, whether a local scheme runs at your address and whether a home battery makes sense for your usage and meter box. That way you know where you stand upfront, without promises that evaporate at the annual statement.

Curious what applies in your situation? Put your question to us and we will line up the schemes for your address.