It might still feel late summery but the nights will soon be drawing in and that means turning on the lights and the central heating. The government has just published its 2025 spending plans, including a few changes that will affect your energy bill. Here’s a list of the main ones.

Taxes
The details are still sketchy, but the government has pledged to lower the tax on gas. Gas prices currently average around €1.30 per m3, of which 70 cents is tax. According to some suggestions, the lower tax could cut the price of gas by just under three cents per m3, which might not seem much, but will shave a few euros of the average bill.

Solar panels
The government says it will press ahead with a major overhaul of the way solar panel users get paid for excess electricity they feed back into the grid. Solar panel owners can currently subtract the energy they “sell” to energy companies from their bills, but from 2027 that will no longer be possible. Instead, energy companies will have to pay a “reasonable” price for the electricity. How much has yet to be decided.

Comparison website Energievergelijk.nl estimates the change will increase the length of time it will take back to earn back your solar panel investment, possibly by as much as 12.5 years. Others are more pessimistic.

“Of course, much will depend on how much of the electricity you generate you use, or store, yourself,” says Energievergelijk.nl’s Koen Kuijper. “But the coalition agreement does not say how much energy firms will be required to pay you for your energy, only that it be ‘reasonable’. And this is only adding to the uncertainty for people who are considering investing in solar panels.”

Transport costs
Transport costs – the fee you pay for having electricity and gas delivered to your home – does not vary with how much you use, although there is a discount if you use less than 500 m3 of gas a year.

The government has pledged to spend €19 billion to strengthen the national grid and offset the current shortage of capacity. But the bill will eventually be picked up by consumers. The Dutch consumers authority ACM expects each household will pay some €60 more in transport costs to pay for the work, and that would take the average household’s payments to some €710 a year.

Sustainability
The new government has scrapped plans to make heat pumps compulsory in most homes but will continue to make subsidies and interest-free loans available to home owners who do decide to go green. Home buyers can also borrow more than 100% of the value of their property if they are either buying a very energy efficient home or one which needs a lot of work to bring it up to standard.

The cabinet is also pressing ahead with plans to build two new nuclear power stations, and possibly another two as well.

Compare prices
If you are not locked into a long-term contract, it might be worth checking out what deals other companies are currently offering, given that gas prices are still fairly high. Comparison website Energievergelijk.nl offers an English language service so you can check out the best deals. Most energy contracts nowadays allow you to switch to another provider every month.

Energievergelijk.nl has also put together a list of no less than 101 tips to save energy. In all, there is lots of help around to keep your energy bill as low as possible this winter!