Solar panel ownership in Netherlands heavily skewed toward higher-income households

A study by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) shows that solar panel ownership in the Netherlands is unevenly spread across households. Higher-income and wealthier households are significantly more likely to install and benefit from solar energy systems.

The number of homes with solar panels has increased significantly between 2020 and 2024, according to the government’s key advisory body. By 2024, roughly one in three Dutch households had installed solar panels. Higher-income households remain disproportionately represented among owners, and this imbalance has stayed broadly stable over the past few years.

The CPB notes that housing associations play an important role in enabling lower-income households to benefit from solar energy. Alongside homeowners, social housing providers also invest relatively frequently in solar panels, supported by government policy incentives. Private tenants, however, are the least likely group to have access to solar installations.

The CPB also finds that solar panels are more common in non-urban areas. This pattern remains visible even when only single-family homes are compared, excluding apartments. The difference is largely explained by income levels, the CPB notes, adding that cities tend to have a higher concentration of lower-income households.

On average, households with solar panels use more electricity. According to the CPB, this is partly because solar energy systems are often combined with other electric technologies, such as heat pumps or electric vehicles.

The CPB study is based on data up to 2024, meaning it does not yet reflect the impact of the late-December 2024 announcement that the net metering scheme will be phased out from 1 January next year. The scheme was originally introduced to encourage households to invest in solar panels.