Dutch Cabinet Aims for 110 GWh of Batteries by 2040

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes · Last updated: 11 November 2026

The Dutch government has set a battery storage target of 110 GWh for 2040. That is more than 50 times the capacity in place at the end of 2025. The Netherlands battery storage target went before the Dutch parliament in the week of 10 November 2026, together with a 25-action plan to clear the obstacles slowing large projects on a congested grid. At the centre of the plan is a shift to flexible grid connection contracts as the normal arrangement for utility-scale batteries. The Cabinet drafted the plan with grid operators, industry, local governments and the market regulator ACM. The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) will measure progress every year.

How Big Is the Netherlands' 110 GWh Target?

The headline figure is 110 GWh of battery storage by 2040. A gigawatt-hour measures stored energy, meaning how much a battery can deliver over time. Power is a different measure: it describes how fast a battery delivers energy and is counted in megawatts. The Cabinet presents the figure as the storage the grid will need. It is neither a cap nor a guaranteed outcome.

The size of the jump is the striking part. Reaching 110 GWh means multiplying the capacity installed at the end of 2025 by more than 50. On that ratio, the Netherlands had less than about 2.2 GWh in place at that point. The government's exact starting figure was not given with the target.

The timeline runs about 15 years from that baseline. That is long enough for several waves of projects to be permitted, connected and built. Even so, the target means little unless the yearly build rate rises sharply and stays high for the whole period.

Who Wrote the Energy Storage Policy Agenda?

The plan behind the target is the Energy Storage Policy Agenda, known in Dutch as the Beleidsagenda Energieopslag. The Cabinet did not write it alone. Its co-authors include Netbeheer Nederland, which represents the country's grid operators, and the trade body Energy Storage NL. Municipal and provincial governments also took part, as did the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), the market regulator.

That line-up matters because each party controls a different chokepoint. Grid operators decide when and how a battery connects. Councils and provinces handle land use and local permits. The ACM shapes the rules on network access and tariffs. A plan that leaves out any one of them tends to stall at that party's step.

The agenda sets out 25 concrete actions aimed at the structural barriers that hold up deployment across the country. Three areas stand out among them: permitting, connection contracts and network tariffs. The sections below take each one in turn.

Why Flexible Grid Connections Become the Default

The plan is aimed at congestion. Dutch transmission and distribution networks are crowded, and new users often wait for capacity the grid cannot yet supply. Large batteries can ease that pressure if they charge and discharge at the right moments. If they do not, they add to it.

Under the agenda, flexible grid connection contracts are to become the normal terms for large-scale batteries. A flexible contract gives a battery network access that can be limited at certain times or capped. It replaces a fixed connection that is always available. In return, a project can connect without waiting for the grid to be reinforced.

The plan also asks for fresh tariff arrangements and compensation schemes under which batteries earn something for behaving in ways that help the grid. How those payments will work, and what they will be worth, has not been specified. Until those details are set, developers cannot weigh the limits they accept on access against what they will be paid for accepting them.

How TenneT's Contracts Point the Way

The approach is not new to the Dutch market. TenneT, the transmission system operator, has already been signing time-limited and capacity control contracts with battery projects. These deals are the working model for what the policy agenda now wants to make routine.

One example from earlier in 2026 is a congestion mitigator deal covering 200 MW / 800 MWh. Dividing the energy figure by the power figure gives roughly four hours of output at full rating. A battery with that duration can absorb surplus power and release it once lines are less crowded.

Public money has also played a part. €100 million had previously been set aside for subsidies supporting storage that relieves congestion. The 110 GWh goal is far larger than that subsidy or a handful of one-off contracts could deliver. That is why the agenda concentrates on making flexible terms standard rather than exceptional.

Faster Permits and Yearly Tracking Underpin the Goal

Permitting is the second lever. Utility-scale battery systems have been granted access to faster permitting. To make that happen, grid operators, regional authorities and developers are expected to align their spatial planning with one another. In practice, decisions about where batteries go and where the grid can take them are meant to be made together rather than one after the other.

Accountability sits with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), which will check progress toward 110 GWh each year. The Cabinet has said it will take more political action if deployment falls short of what the grid structurally requires.

That commitment is open-ended. The Cabinet has not said which measures it would use, or how far deployment would need to slip before it acts. Annual reporting will at least make any shortfall visible early, while there is still time to respond before 2040.

What could help or hold back the 110 GWh goal

The bottom line

The Netherlands now has a number to plan against: 110 GWh by 2040. The harder work lies in the 25 actions behind it. The most important is turning flexible grid connections from individual deals, like TenneT's, into standard terms any large battery can sign. The design of tariffs and compensation for grid-conscious operation is the missing piece. Without it, developers are being asked to accept constrained access without knowing what it pays. Faster permits and joint spatial planning tackle the other bottleneck. RVO's yearly reports will show whether the build rate can support a more than 50-fold rise, and the Cabinet has committed to step in if it cannot.

What to watch

• Watch for RVO's first annual progress report on the 110 GWh benchmark. No date has been set.
• Watch for the detailed tariff and compensation rules meant to reward grid-conscious battery operation. No timetable has been given.
• Watch for how the Dutch parliament handles the Energy Storage Policy Agenda following its presentation in November 2026. No date has been set for further debate.