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To better understand the challenges that Belgium is going to face in the short to medium term, we have interviewed representatives of two of the Belgium PV associations, EDORA and EF4. These are playing a very active role in order to advocate Solar Photovoltaics towards the Belgium decision-makers.

The following interviews provide the views of EDORA.

Interview with Frank Gérard, EDORA Adviser, in collaboration with ODE-Vlaanderen

Belgium was at the 11th EU position regarding its total PV installed capacity in 2006, and has climbed up to the 4th position in 2009. How do you explain such a result for a small country as Belgium?

First of all we should remind the institutional context of Belgium. To summarise the issue we could say that Flanders did start its strong supporting scheme in 2006. The two other regions, Brussels Capital and Wallonia, started later in 2008. The current installed capacity, by end 2009, was therefore mainly done in Flanders. The trend of installed capacity is following the same slope with a 2-year delay for Wallonia and Brussels Capital.

In the Brussels Capital Region and in Wallonia, PV electricity gives right to a number of Green Certificates depending on the size of the PV system (between 1 and 7 GC for each MWh produced). The current scheme is quite generous for micro-residential systems (<5kW) and good for small industrial (<250kW) installations. The consequence on the Walloon market is that 98% of the installed capacity comes from residential customers.

Flanders is working with a mixed mechanism, where the purchase price of the Green Certificates (1 GC/MWh for all sizes) is fixed by law for PV at 35 cents per kWh (exactly as a FiT). About 70% of the installed capacity belongs to the middle and large-scale industrial segments. In the Flemish region, a reduction path for the guaranteed price for PV certificates is legally established towards 2020.

Another very important aspect of the support scheme running in all three regions is what is called a “compensation” mechanism (net-metering) which allows a small size auto-producer (residential with capacity <10kW) to consume directly from the grid or to inject PV electricity into the grid. When the PV system is not producing, the auto-producer consumes from the grid, increasing his grid-consumed electricity. When the system produces without consumption, the electricity is injected into the grid by running the meter in the opposite direction, virtually erasing the previous electricity consumption. When a PV system is correctly sized and produces the average annual electricity needs of a household, such a scheme drives the annual electricity bill to zero, except the fixed fees, as it valorises the produced electricity at the end-user purchase price. Such a scheme is attractive for its financial benefits, but also because it provides the auto-producer with the concrete feeling of suppressing his electricity bill which plays a major sensitisation role.

Other support scheme aspects, such as the federal tax credit for private persons or the investment subsidy for enterprises, remain crucial to provide investors with enough liquidity to realise their projects.

Administrative procedures such as building permits are continuously under revision to facilitate the development of PV projects, even if some barriers still remain.
One of the next major steps is to create a favourable framework for middle and large-scale industrial installations in Wallonia and Brussels Capital. There is a huge potential which has not yet been exploited in Wallonia.

The official target for cumulative PV installation in 2020 has not been defined yet, what could be achievable for the sector?

The National Renewable Energy Source Industry Roadmap for Belgium, realised by EDORA in close collaboration with ODE-Vlaanderen, is proposing a target of 10% of the produced renewable electricity coming from PV. Translated into installed capacity, it means that Belgium should install about 3.44GW by 2020, starting from 4MW in 2006 and 363MW end 2009. An average of 300MW should be installed yearly to reach this target. This is realistic if remaining non-economic barriers are suppressed and if the incentive schemes are adapted in a sustainable way.

Belgium has developed a quality label, can you let us know how it works and what are its advantages?

In the frame of Article 14 of the Directive and the obligation to provide certification schemes to installers by end 2012 and in order to contribute to optimise the domestic renewable energy production, there is a need to launch and strengthen existing quality systems.

A label is currently launched in Flanders for PV installers. It concerns both electrical aspects and building integration aspects. It is a global quality approach based on the quality of the components and the competencies of the installer regarding PV, electricity and roof integration. The independent quality centre Quest is responsible for the development, the application and the management of the quality system. Quest is a joint initiative from the sector federations, knowledge centres and the regional government.

The added value for installers is the differentiation against the competition; the structure and improvement of global enterprise quality approach and the public image driven by labels. End users would have products/components responding to international norms; service quality during and after execution; higher guarantee for appropriate building integration and production. There is no product label as such, but the quality of the components is evaluated during the quality control of the installer. The requirements are concerning the offer and sales contract; the reception of the installation; the conception of the installation and the components used.

In Wallonia, such a scheme is under development. The only current system is a quality charter engaging installers to provide quality guarantees. It should be compared to a “best practices code”, made on a voluntary and free basis. To go further in the development and implementation of a full quality system, collaboration will be promoted among all stakeholders from the renewable sector and the construction and coordination will be carried out among the three regions.

What are the short and medium term challenges and what would be your recommendations to the authorities to improve the current support scheme and make it sustainable?

The Green Certificate System should be reviewed by the Walloon regulator by the end of 2010. Therefore we will recommend adapting the system to fit with the cost of the technology and its expected evolution to reach grid parity before 2020. On the other hand, we are urging the authorities to adapt the system in order to ease industrial installations in Wallonia and Brussels.

There is still a need to fix the transparency and predictability of the support scheme to attract more investors. Some indirect costs related to distribution system access and usage should be adapted or fully suppressed.

Some non–economic barriers still remain, such as the long iterative process to get a grid connection and access contract for PV systems larger than 10 kW (nominal installed AC power). There is a huge demand for third party financing schemes (where part of the risk is supported by another party than the land or roof owner who will directly consume the PV electricity). Such schemes are complicated in Wallonia, leading to non-profitable projects. The Flemish regulation is imposing roof insulation for private dwellings from 2010 onwards as a condition to obtain Green Certificates for newly installed PV systems. The required insulation level is not always verifiable. Such a constraint will certainly be a major obstacle for small installations if not properly adapted.

Regarding middle term challenges, the reinforcement of the infrastructure and especially of the grid capacity will become an increasing issue with the deployment of decentralised production plants, among which PV should also play an important role. The MetaPV project is currently running in Limburg (Flanders) with the aim of demonstrating the additional electrical benefits for enhanced grid control and support from PV installations. The project started in 2009 and will run up to 2014. Such a large demonstration would be critical to pave the way to generate 12% of power demand coming from PV. With such an approach, instead of regular reinforcement of the existing grid, distribution system operators could opt for evolutionary approaches: increasing the hosting capacity of a grid by means of active grid control.

In the frame of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the full integration of PV within the building should be seen as a mature and important technology to achieve energy performance goals.