Companies from Germany, Scandinavia, Britain and China are building most of the large-scale solar power farms in the Netherlands, project developers and subsidy consultants have told the Financieele Dagblad.

The foreign solar panel park developers are partly attracted to the Netherlands because of the substantial subsidies for the projects, the paper said. Billions of euros are available every year.

‘More than a third of the funds available in subsidies for solar power farms goes to non-Dutch companies,’ said Douwe Faber of consultancy Ekwadraat. The Netherlands, he said, has waited too long to develop its solar power strategy and little expertise was developed in building solar farms in the Netherlands as a result.

Among the foreign-owned projects currently underway: Norway’s Statskraft is developing a 17-hectare solar farm in Emmen and China’s Unisun is building its first Dutch solar energy farm in Rilland, Zeeland province.

In addition, the Danish investor in sustainable energy Obton announced plans in November to invest €100m a year to develop solar energy projects in the Netherlands over the next few years.

All these projects are eligible for subsidies of around €100m, the paper said.