Plans to cut back on green energy certificates will affect not 200 but over 2,000 companies, according to ODE Flanders, the sector organisation for renewable energy.
The government wants to cut green energy certificates from large solar panel installations and, over the next 10 years, pay out €1.2 billion less for such certificates to large investors.
Specifically, the government wants to stop making payouts for some 1,200 installations made by about 200 investors. These are pre-2013 installations, whose green certificates are not yet linked to energy prices.
However, the solar panel industry claims that the estimated number of companies affected by the cut is not 200 but more than 2,000. ODE Flanders bases this figure on new data analysis by the study bureau REBEL, commissioned by ODE.
The organisation says the affected companies are mainly SMEs and farms and that the Flemish government is ignoring the social impact of the planned cut.
Flemish Minister of Energy Zuhal Demir reported on Thursday that the Council of State had no additional comments on the draft decree. Earlier, the government had had to adjust the draft following an opinion from the Council of State.
The issue returns to the Flemish Council of Ministers on Friday.
