Solar Self-Consumption Rules in Europe: 5 Countries

Last updated: November 2026

What a rooftop owner earns for exported solar power now depends on where the building stands. This guide compares five markets: Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy. For each one it uses the national regulator, ministry or official gazette (the government’s journal of new laws).

You will find the export rule, the rate where one is published, and the dates that matter for projects quoted today.

Self-consumption rules in five countries at a glance

The table lists rules, not a ranking. Each row states what the cited document says on the date it was read in October 2026.

What is solar self-consumption?

Solar self-consumption is the share of a solar system’s output that the building or site uses itself, instead of exporting it. Say a 10 kWp system generates 10,000 kWh a year. The building uses 4,000 kWh of it on site. The self-consumption rate is 4,000 ÷ 10,000 = 40%.

Fraunhofer ISE, a German research institute, estimated that self-consumption in Germany reached 12.28 TWh (terawatt-hours) in 2024. That is 17% of net PV generation, up from 13% in 2023 (Fraunhofer ISE, 2025).

To model self-consumption, you need hourly or 15-minute consumption data, not only annual kWh. Cloud solar design software can model both rates, not just system yield. That gives clients the numbers that decide the purchase.

The EU legal baseline

EU renewables law gives self-consumers the right to generate, use and sell their own renewable electricity. The law is Directive (EU) 2018/2001 as amended by Directive (EU) 2023/2413. It does not set export tariffs. Each EU country sets its own compensation. That is why the five countries below pay for surplus in five different ways. The UK is outside the EU and has its own rules, which this guide does not cover. Permit rules differ as well. See solar permit requirements in Europe.

The EUR-Lex site, the EU’s law database, blocks automated readers. So this section describes the directives in general terms and gives no article-level detail.

Western Europe: country rules

Germany

Germany pays a fixed feed-in tariff for exported surplus. This is a set price for each kWh you export. For plants commissioned from 1 August to 31 December 2026, the Bundesnetzagentur (Germany’s federal network agency) lists 7.70 ct/kWh for partial feed-in up to 10 kW. It lists 12.22 ct/kWh for full feed-in up to 10 kW (Bundesnetzagentur). Partial feed-in means the owner uses part of the output on site and exports the rest. Full feed-in sends everything to the grid.

The same page says the published rates rest on the EEG 2023, Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act. The EEG 2023 applies until 31 December 2026. A successor law was in parliamentary deliberation when the page was read. The page also publishes a Mieterstromzuschlag, a surcharge for solar power supplied to tenants in the same building.

Self-consumption itself earns no tariff. Your saving is the retail price of electricity you do not have to buy. This guide gives no retail price because no primary source for it was read.

France

France changed its support for building-mounted PV on 1 June 2026. An arrêté, which is a French government order, made the change. It amends the S21 arrêté of 6 October 2021. The Journal Officiel (France’s official gazette) published it on 4 June 2026 (NOR ECOR2609281A, Légifrance). The text sets a purchase tariff for injected surplus of 1.1 c€/kWh excluding VAT, indexed by 2% a year. It applies to individual and collective self-consumption (several users sharing one system). Injection above installed power times 1,600 hours a year is not eligible. For installations of 9 kWc or less, only surplus-sale installations are eligible.

The Commission de régulation de l’énergie (CRE), France’s energy regulator, described the draft as supporting only self-consumption installations. It said the earlier investment bonus was removed (CRE deliberation 2026-92, 29 April 2026). For systems of 0 to 9 kWc, the same document records the previous values. These were an investment bonus of 8 c€/Wc and a surplus tariff of 40 €/MWh. That tariff equals 4 c€/kWh (40 ÷ 10 = 4). The new 1.1 c€/kWh is 1.1 ÷ 4, or about 28% of that earlier tariff.

Légifrance, the French government’s law site, blocks automated readers. So the arrêté’s wording above was read in the copy published by AIDA (INERIS). That copy reproduces the Journal Officiel text.

Spain

Royal Decree 244/2019 defines Spain’s simplified compensation. A producer and consumer sign a surplus-compensation contract. The bill then nets the value of the surplus against the value of the energy drawn from the grid. With a free-market supplier, both are valued at the hourly price agreed between the parties. For customers on the regulated small-consumer price, the surplus is valued differently. It is valued at the average hourly price from the day-ahead and intraday markets, less the cost of imbalances. The value of surplus cannot exceed the value of energy consumed in the billing period. A billing period cannot exceed one month (BOE, RD 244/2019, article 14). The BOE is Spain’s official state gazette.

For collective self-consumption, the same decree says when a generator counts as nearby. It counts as nearby when it sits within 500 metres of the consumers, measured between meters. It also counts when it shares a low-voltage transformer or a cadastral reference (a property’s land-register reference). A PV or wind plant of up to 5 MW connected through the grid counts as nearby within 5,000 metres. The consolidated text read here was last updated on 21 March 2026. The BOE records several changes to this definition since 2021. So check the current wording before you rely on a distance.

Netherlands

The Dutch net-metering scheme is called saldering. It lets households and small businesses net the electricity they feed back against their use each year until 31 December 2026. In plain terms, power you send to the grid cancels power you take. Rijksoverheid, the Dutch national government, gives this example. A household returns 2,500 kWh in summer. It can use 2,500 kWh in winter without paying energy cost, network cost or energy tax on it. That is because 2,500 − 2,500 = 0 kWh is billed.

From 1 January 2027 netting stops. Owners keep exporting and receive compensation from their energy supplier for all electricity fed back. Until 2030 that compensation must be at least 50% of the bare supply tariff, meaning the power price without taxes. Suppliers may charge feed-in costs only to cover the cost of processing the returned power (Rijksoverheid). The Eerste Kamer (the Dutch Senate) passed the law ending saldering on 17 December 2024. The bill puts the date at 1 January 2027 (Eerste Kamer). The government’s business portal also gives 1 January 2027 (business.gov.nl).

For more on the Dutch market, see solar energy in the Netherlands.

Southern Europe: Italy

Italy’s Scambio sul Posto (SSP) is a scheme under which the GSE credits exported energy against consumption. The GSE is Italy’s energy services operator. ARERA, Italy’s energy regulator, issued resolution 78/2025/R/efr on 4 March 2025. It implements Article 9(2) of Legislative Decree 199/21. Plants that enter service after 29 May 2025 can no longer use SSP (ARERA 78/2025/R/efr). Resolution 213/2025/R/efr of 27 May 2025 confirms the last date to apply to the GSE for access. That date is 26 September 2025 (ARERA 213/2025/R/efr).

Existing SSP agreements cannot be renewed beyond 15 years from first signing. When one ends for that reason, the GSE pays out the accrued surplus by the following 30 June. In the case described in the resolution, it also activates a Ritiro Dedicato agreement for the same plants. Ritiro Dedicato is the GSE service that buys the energy a plant feeds into the grid.

The resolution does not give a Ritiro Dedicato price. The GSE site blocks automated readers. So this guide gives none. See also solar panel ROI in Italy.

What changes in 2027

• Netherlands, 1 January 2027: saldering ends. Suppliers pay compensation for all returned electricity, at least 50% of the bare supply tariff until 2030 (Rijksoverheid).
• Germany, after 31 December 2026: the EEG 2023 applies until this date. A successor law was still in parliament when the Bundesnetzagentur page was read.

No other change in the five countries above has a 2027 date in the sources read.

Other European markets

This page does not give rates for Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Poland, Croatia or the UK. No primary source was checked for them. These pages cover the topic in more depth: solar energy in Belgium, solar energy in Austria, solar energy in Sweden, solar software in Poland, solar incentives in Croatia and MCS certification for solar in the UK. For compliance by region, see Europe solar compliance and grid export limits by country.

Designing for self-consumption

When exports earn less than the retail price you avoid, a proposal should lead with the self-consumed share. Three design choices change it:

1. System size against the load profile. A system sized for the building’s daytime load exports less.
2. Orientation. East and west layouts shift output toward morning and evening. Compare them in east-west vs south-facing layouts.
3. Storage. A battery moves surplus into the evening. See battery storage services for solar companies.

SurgePV covers energy-yield and financial modeling, shading analysis and proposal generation. You enter the export rate, retail price and consumption profile from the sources above. The results depend on those assumptions. Shade matters for timing as well as total yield. A shadow costs more self-consumption when it falls on hours of high use. It costs less when it falls on hours of low use.

To test a real project against these rules, book a SurgePV demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is solar self-consumption in Europe?

Solar self-consumption is when a building uses the electricity its own panels generate instead of exporting it. The self-consumption rate is the share of solar output used on site. EU renewables law gives self-consumers rights, but each country sets its own export payment. So the rules in this guide differ by country.

Which European countries still have net metering?

Of the five countries compared here, the Netherlands still lets owners cancel exports against their use until 31 December 2026. It ends the scheme on 1 January 2027. Spain credits surplus against use within a billing period of at most one month. Italy closed Scambio sul Posto to plants entering service after 29 May 2025. Germany and France pay tariffs for exported surplus instead.

What replaces net metering in the Netherlands from 2027?

From 1 January 2027 owners of solar panels can no longer cancel exports against their use. Their energy supplier pays compensation for all electricity fed back. Until 2030 that payment must be at least 50% of the bare supply tariff, which is the electricity price without taxes (Rijksoverheid).

What replaced Scambio sul Posto in Italy?

ARERA is Italy’s energy regulator. Its resolution 78/2025/R/efr closed Scambio sul Posto to plants entering service after 29 May 2025. Existing agreements cannot be renewed beyond 15 years from first signing. Ritiro Dedicato is the GSE service that buys exported energy. The resolution activates it for plants whose agreement ends at the 15-year limit.

How does France pay for surplus solar in 2026?

Under the arrêté (government order) of 1 June 2026, published on 4 June 2026, the purchase tariff for surplus is 1.1 c€/kWh excluding VAT, indexed by 2% a year. Electricity injected above installed power times 1,600 hours a year is not eligible. Systems of 9 kWc or less qualify only as surplus sales.

Can I share solar electricity in an apartment building in Europe?

Several countries allow collective schemes. Spain sets distance conditions between generation and consumers in Royal Decree 244/2019. France defines collective self-consumption in article L. 315-2 of the Code de l’énergie. Germany publishes a tenant electricity surcharge, the Mieterstromzuschlag. Check the current national rules before you design a shared system.