Turning off solar panels from 2027: when is it worth it?

Switching your solar panels off completely after 1 January 2027 is not smart for most households. Smart dimming at the right moments can pay off, though. This is not advice about your contract or your inverter.

What changes on 1 January 2027.

Dutch net metering (salderingsregeling) ends from 1 January 2027 (Dutch government). You can then no longer offset the power you generate against what you use. Your panels still feed power into the grid.

Your supplier pays you for it: until 2030 at least 50% of the price without taxes (the ‘bare supply rate’). Your supplier may charge costs for processing your power. Those feed-in costs can sometimes be higher than the payment, warns the regulator ACM.

Power you use yourself is still worth the most. You don’t buy it, and you pay no energy tax or VAT on it. That tax alone is already about 11 cents per kWh in 2026, VAT included. What else changes on your bill is in net metering ends on 1 January 2027.

Why switching off completely is usually not smart.

If you switch your panels off completely, the power for your own home stops too. You then have to buy it. Energievergelijk.nl worked out what that costs (1 June 2026). Their example: twelve panels, about 4,200 kWh a year, a third used at home.

Those are their assumptions for a fixed contract, not your situation. Bought power costs about 26 cents per kWh, tax and VAT included. For feeding in you get 2.5 cents per kWh, after feed-in costs.

Those 2.5 cents are the highest amount in their example. Other fixed contracts pay less, from 0.1 cents.

Three moments when dimming does earn money.

When you dim, your panels generate less, or nothing, for a while. At three kinds of moments that earns you money.

With a dynamic contract: at a negative price.

With a dynamic contract your electricity price follows the price on the power market, per quarter hour, hour or day (ACM). Sometimes that price is negative. Then you pay to feed power in. As long as you still use net metering (until the end of 2026), you hardly notice. Dutch motoring club ANWB also writes that switching off is only financially smart then.

At a market price of −5 cents, feeding in costs you around 5 cents per kWh. Because of the tax, buying power is still not free.

So you want to stop feeding in, but keep making your own power.

How often is the price negative? In 2026 it was 400 hours up to 27 October, against 584 hours by the same date in 2025. This is the hourly market price without VAT, according to the counter of Eerlijk Verbruik (read on 26 October 2026).

With a fixed contract, dimming at a negative price does nothing for you.

In ten Enexis areas: even with a fixed contract.

Do you live in one of the ten areas selected by Enexis? Then dimming earns you money, whatever your contract. Zonnedimmer dims your panels there on behalf of your grid operator. You get € 0.25 per dimmed kWh. Read more about dimming for your grid operator.

With a fixed contract: when feeding in costs you money.

Does your supplier charge more in feed-in costs from 2027 than you get as payment? Even then, don’t switch your panels off, but limit your feed-in with the dongle (see below). Your panels then make roughly what your home uses. Is something still left after the costs, like those 2.5 cents? Then limiting gains you nothing.

What does dimming earn you?

Which of these three moments apply to you? That depends on your contract and your address.

• Dimming at a negative price: depends on your situation € 30–50 per year, from 2027 With a dynamic contract we dim automatically when your electricity price is negative. Our calculation value, not a promise.
• Compensation from Enexis: depends on your situation € 0.25 per dimmed kWh In ten areas selected by Enexis, with a fixed contract too. When you sign up, you see right away whether your address is in one.
• Lower feed-in costs with the dongle: depends on your situation From 2027 with a fixed contract With a fixed contract, if your supplier charges more in feed-in costs than you get in compensation. € 49.95, reserved with a free account; not yet with Enphase and Huawei.

Sign up for free

Switch off yourself, the free app or the dongle.

Switching off yourself, for example in your inverter’s app. You then have to watch the price and switch them back on later. If you forget, they stand still while you buy power.

The free Zonnedimmer app dims automatically for you, with a dynamic contract. At a negative price it dims your panels. Once the price is positive again, they go back to full power. You choose the percentage yourself. Leave part on and you still make power for your own home.

With Enphase and Huawei you cannot choose that percentage, because they cannot dim in steps. There the panels go fully off and then back on.

The Zonnedimmer dongle dims exactly your feed-in. It reads your smart meter. In the “Minimise feed-in” setting we dim no more than you feed in. With a fixed contract that setting can stay on all the time. That pays off from 2027, if feeding in costs you money.

The dongle costs € 49.95, one-off and shipping included. You first need a Zonnedimmer account. You place a reservation and only pay when it is your turn. The setting doesn’t work with Enphase and Huawei yet.

Whether your inverter works with Zonnedimmer is on the list of suitable installations. Which settings you can choose is explained under dimming at negative prices.