Background information

The Energy Agenda, a government strategy aimed at cutting carbon emission by 2050, will introduce temporary additional policies covering all sectors of the economy aimed at supporting a gradual reduction in CO2 emissions of 80-95% by 2050. These policies will consist of a mixture of incentives and regulatory standards and obligations grouped into so-called 'transition paths'. In the Energy Agenda, these transition paths are drawn for the four functionalities (power and light, high temperature heat, low temperature heat and transport) on a general basis.

Based on these guidelines, and taking into account their costs, the government will begin a consultation process with citizens, business, research institutions, civil society organisations and local authorities that will ultimately lead to a joint determination of ambitions and further transition paths (more elaborately detailed, and organised by functionality) for the period up to 2050.

Content of measure

Two incentive schemes are available for businesses:

* The Renewable Energy Grant Scheme (SDE+). 
* The Energy Investment Tax Credit (though this existed some time before the Energy Agenda and is not tied to the agenda).

The Renewable Energy Grant Scheme (SDE++)

The SDE++ is a subsidy for enterprises who wish to start producing energy more sustainably or who wish to reduce their CO2 output. In this sense, the SDE++ is broader and farther reaching than its predecessor programme, the SDE+ as this latter version also covers CO2 emissions. The SDE++ has several main categories or areas of activity and within each category offers several specific subsidy types. The main categories include: renewable energy, renewable heat (energy), renewable gas, CO2 reducing heat production, and CO2 reducing production methods. To illustrate the sub-categories for which subsidies may be granted, for renewable energy these include water power, wind, solar energy, and water. 

The Energy Investment Tax (EIA) Credit

The EIA is a scheme for companies to gain tax credit on their investments in energy savings techniques and approaches to producing sustainable energy. The scheme allows enterprises to deduct 11%  tax on those investments and on top of this, an enterprise can deduct up to 45% of taxes on any profits generated through such energy savings or renewable energy activities. In 2020 the budget for this scheme is €147 million. These investments are described as ‘company resources' on an Energy List, which contains 7 categories of resources which fall under the EIA Credit.

Use of measure

A 2018 evaluation examined the EIA from 2012 to 2017 and found that in this period, the EIA supported the investment of €4.4 billion in energy savings and renewable energy. The energy saved in this period is estimated to be between 21 and 27 pj (peta joules). The aim is to have saved 100pj by 2020 and hence there is some progress to be made still. In contributing to energy savings, the EIA also contributes to reductions in CO2 emissions; namely an annual reduction of 0.7 to 1.5 mega tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown

Views and reactions

Unknown

Sources

• 13 December 2019: PBL(2019), Evaluation report, Advies voorjaarsronde SDE+ 2020. (www.pbl.nl)
• 13 May 2022: Energy Investment Allowance - EIA (english.rvo.nl)
• 04 July 2022: RVO, (2020), Energie-investeringsaftrek (EIA) (rvo.nl)
• 17 October 2022: Stimulation of Sustainable Energy Production - SDE+ (english.rvo.nl)