In short
The combination works as a buffer: whatever your panels produce beyond your use during the day charges the battery, and in the evening your home draws from the battery instead of the grid.
What does a battery do next to your solar panels?
Without steering, households use on average about 30 percent of their solar power themselves, and the rest goes to the grid. With a battery, a surplus goes to the battery first and only to the grid once it is full. If you use power while the panels produce nothing, you draw from the battery first.
A battery does have to fit your installation. In the shop the Hyxi Halo and the Hoymiles HiBattery are listed as AC-coupled, and the TSUN PowerTrunk as AC storage with its own inverter. For every model, check whether it suits your inverter and what the connection and meter options are, on the product page or in the datasheet. You can also find out which model suits your panels with the battery match.
What changes when net metering ends?
The Dutch net metering scheme (salderingsregeling) ends on 1 January 2027. Until 31 December 2026 you can still offset the electricity you feed back against your consumption. After that you receive a payment for all the electricity you feed back, which until 1 January 2030 must be at least 50 percent of the price excluding energy tax and VAT. You then pay energy tax and VAT on all the electricity you draw from the grid.
What that means for your bill, feed-in costs and contract is explained in what changes on 1 January 2027. What feeding back costs is explained in feed-in costs and the feed-in fee. Electricity you generate and use directly stays untaxed.
A battery does not replace net metering. It raises your own consumption, which makes you less dependent on what a supplier pays for feed-in. Whether it pays for itself is uncertain: Milieu Centraal expects that you most likely will not earn a home battery back at the moment.
Raising self-consumption: what can a battery do?
A battery is one way to use more of your own electricity. Its benefit lies in the hours when your panels produce nothing. Self-generated power is often 3 to 4 times cheaper than purchased power with a fixed or variable contract, so every kWh you use yourself counts. The table compares the options.
| Situation | Self-consumption of your solar power | Assumption |
|---|---|---|
| Without steering | on average about 30 percent | Average household with solar panels |
| Running appliances when the sun shines | 35 percent | Example with 3,200 kWh a year: washing machine, dishwasher and dryer on solar power |
| Heat pump storage tank on solar power | 45 percent | Example with 5,500 kWh a year and a fully electric heat pump |
| Charging an electric car on solar power | 50 percent | Example with 5,500 kWh a year and an electric car |
| Home battery | no fixed percentage | Depends on capacity, panels and consumption; a typical battery stores about 6 kWh |
When does a battery suit your panels?
A battery suits a household that uses a lot of electricity in the evening and whose panels give a clear surplus during the day. Do not count on it paying for itself, and do not see it as a fix for the summer peak: ten panels produce 15 kWh on an average June day, while a typical battery stores 6 kWh. Alternatives are using your solar power directly and charging an electric car smartly; in the worked example above self-consumption with a car charging on solar power rises to 50 percent.
How many kWh you need is worked out in calculating home battery capacity. If you have no panels yet, a larger battery with a dynamic contract can be an option: with a dynamic energy contract you can buy electricity when the price is low and sell it again when the price is high. Even with such a larger battery it is uncertain whether you earn it back; more on that is in home battery without solar panels. You find models in the shop or with the battery match; what a battery is exactly is explained in what is a home battery.
Sources
- Rijksoverheid: net metering ends in 2027: end date 1 January 2027, net metering until 31 December 2026, payment for all electricity fed back, self-used electricity untaxed (accessed on 2026-10-18)
- ACM ConsuWijzer: net metering and feeding back: payment of at least 50 percent of the price excluding energy tax and VAT until 1 January 2030, energy tax and VAT on all electricity drawn (accessed on 2026-10-18)
- Milieu Centraal: solar power when net metering ends: 3 to 4 times cheaper, self-consumption examples (accessed on 2026-10-18)
- Milieu Centraal: home battery: battery most likely not paid back, 6 kWh versus 15 kWh in June, dynamic contract (accessed on 2026-10-18)
- Milieu Centraal: net metering for solar panels: on average about 30 percent self-consumption (accessed on 2026-10-18)
