Save thanks to solar panels? That is not for everyone

The high energy prices convinced homeowner Ilse Peetoom (42) to buy solar panels, she says. She is sitting with her newborn baby on her arm in her light, tightly renovated 1930s home. Thanks to the solar panels, Peetoom now pays an average of 40 euros less per month for gas and electricity. She had enough savings to have the solar panels, worth 4,500 euros, installed.

Homeowners Edward (52) and Thea (53) Meijerink do want solar panels, but first have to save more for their pension and a new floor. It is old and needs to be replaced. Edward stands in the doorway of their 1920s home while Thea watches television. They live there with their daughter. Both work in care for the disabled, together they earn around 3,600 euros net per month.

“And once we install solar panels, the entire roof has to be filled,” says Edward Meijerink. Their daughter likes to use the jacuzzi in the garden with friends. “It’s all very nice, but heating that water costs a lot of electricity. If we take solar panels, we want to earn it back as quickly as possible.” The fastest way to do this is with as many panels as possible.

Fortunately, he says, they have a fixed-price energy contract, so they don’t notice much of the price increases yet. The contract runs for another two years. Before that, he hopes to get a good offer from the energy company for an extension.

Energy prices are now sky-high. The rates for gas and electricity were almost 86 percent higher for an annual contract in January this year, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. But some residents are hit harder than others.

How is that possible? And how does the opportunity to invest in sustainability strengthen these differences? An afternoon in the Hilversum Elektrobuurt (average WOZ value in 2020: 232,000 euros) and Vogelbuurt (average WOZ value in 2020: 249,000 euros) shows the contrasts.

Both neighborhoods originally belonged to the poorer neighborhoods of Hilversum, but in recent years house prices in the Vogelbuurt have risen due to what residents describe as “veryupping” – highly educated people who have moved to live in the neighbourhood.

Heat pump of 11,000 euros

About half of Dutch households (44 percent) have an energy contract with a term of one year or longer. The other half has a variable contract, and is therefore already directly affected by the high prices.

Some have made their homes more sustainable with solar panels or a heat pump, which means that their energy costs are much lower. But not every homeowner can afford these kinds of adjustments to their home, a recent study by De Nederlandsche Bank showed. About 20 percent of homeowners have too little savings or loan space in their mortgage to pay for a heat pump worth 11,000 euros.

Budget adviser Nibud previously reported that almost half of Dutch homeowners has no money of his own to spend 5,000 euros on solar panels. 2 percent of the Dutch can’t afford it at all, because they wouldn’t be able to borrow the money either. In the Elektrobuurt and Vogelbuurt it is noticeable that many households like to borrow as little as possible, even though such an extra loan results in a somewhat lower energy bill.

Replace the roof first

In the neighborhood of Edward and Thea Meijerink, the Elektrobuurt, the many (social) rental homes alternate with owner-occupied homes. Children play in the street where they live, and there are motorcycles in the front yard of various homes.

Homeowner Marcella van Tilburg (37) has looked at solar panels, but her priority now lies with the roof, which has to be replaced in a few years.

Van Tilburg lives in a terraced house with her three children and husband. He works as a truck driver and earns 4,800 euros net per month. Solar panels would be too great a drain on their savings, says Van Tilburg. Maybe in five years, when the mortgage is paid off. Now they pay 150 euros a month for an energy contract with fixed prices. “It’s fine that way,” she says.

How different is the Elektrobuurt compared to the adjacent Vogelbuurt, where Ilse Peetoom lives with her baby. Every few homes there is one with solar panels. This is partly due to a housing association that owns a lot in the area, in addition to the large share of private homeowners.

The corporation offered the tenants panels, says tenant Maria van Wierst (87). Her panels are not connected. “Put them on for the next owner,” she said. Given her age, she will not be able to recoup the contribution that the corporation asked for.

Consume more consciously

For homeowner Marjolein van Dillen (53) solar panels do deliver a lot. She and her husband live on the other side of the street, in a spacious 1930s house. Just before they moved in, they installed nine solar panels, and later another twelve on the garden shed.

Making the home more sustainable fits in with her habit of dealing ‘smartly’ with money. As a result, she was recently able to take early retirement. This was achieved by being frugal, budgeting and saving. She points to a wooden frame hanging on the wall, made herself from old skirting boards.

The ‘psychological’ effect of solar panels makes you consume more consciously, thinks Van Dillen. “Even” her husband, who is a little less keen on spending, now suggests doing some laundry when the sun is out.

The heat pump will come in May, she thinks, and she has already requested quotations. This means that its energy costs can be ‘towards zero’. Now she pays about 60 euros per month. Thanks to its low consumption and the solar panels, it is “not at all” bothered by the high energy prices.

There is a big difference with neighbors and homeowners Fabian van Dam and Jolijn Folders. When the young couple came to live in the Vogelbuurt a year and a half ago, they concluded an energy contract with a variable rate – without thinking about it. The January bill was 600 euros. For the time being, ‘the peak’, Van Dam hopes.

The young couple is expecting their first child and together they earn around 4,400 euros net per month, she in IT, he in care for the disabled. The 16,000 euros building deposit that they took with the mortgage will largely be spent on replacing their gas heater with central heating in the coming period. And they want to keep a buffer for their baby.

Extensively insulated

In the Elektrobuurt, homeowners Oleg (57) and Valentina (60) Maloman are now worrying about making their home more sustainable. They earn “above average” and together they consume as much energy as a household of one person, they proudly show in their energy app. That makes choosing solar panels difficult. If you use little power, the payback will take longer, because of the relatively low rate for returning generated power to the grid (6 cents per kWh).

Oleg and Valentina have already extensively insulated their house. And they may also want a heat pump, although they find it “pretty expensive”. Anyway, they too will have to replace the roof soon. “The pans are about to burst.” And the wooden construction has to be partly renewed. The costs for this would be about 15,000 euros, which requires a lot of saving. They also benefit from their contract with fixed energy rates. What if the prices continue to rise, and their contract expires? Would they then take solar panels? Oleg Maloman: „Well, we will see that again. We make decisions on an ad hoc basis.”