Support for renewable electricity (photovoltaics) - Green certificates - Flanders

Country	Belgium
Year Implemented	2006
Policy Status	In force
Date Announced	2004
Date Effective	1 January 2006
Agency	•Flemish Regulation Entity for the Electricity and Gas market (VREG)
Policy Supersedes	Support for Solar - Flanders
Policy Type	•Tradable Permits   •Green Certificate Trading
Policy Target	•Solar Photovoltaic
Policy Sector	•Electricity
Size of Plant Targeted	Small
Description	As of 1 January 2006, a new green certificate scheme is in place to encourage the production of electricity from solar photovoltaics (PV). The Act establishes a fixed price for every tradable green certificate issued for solar electricity for 20 years from the date of the solar PV installation. This is valid for electricity produced by PV installations beginning service after 31 December 2005. The green certificates can be sold to the grid operators who are obliged to pay a fixed price per certificate. From 2010 onwards three adjustments were made to the system of green certificates: 1) only PV installations that are installed on sufficiently insulated roofs are eligible for green certificates; 2) the fixed price per certificate will depend on the year of installation, decreasing gradually from 350 EUR/MWh in 2010 to 10 EUR/MWh in 2020; 3) from 2013 green certificates will only be issued for solar electricity produced during 15 years (instead of 20 years) after installation.
URL	www.vreg.be
Legal References	Flemish Act of 7 May 2004