At the beginning of June, Dutch meteorological insitute KNMI always looks back at the past spring months to evaluate how it was. For this year's spring, they were very positive about the amount of sunshine: spring 2026 was considered to be 'very sunny' and also as 'exceptionally warm': this spring ranks in the top 5 of warmest springs!

As for the month of May: it was also very sunny, especially at the very beginning and particularly during the last part, from May 20th onwards (which we hope didn't pass you by unawares!) We had an average of 258 hours of sunshine (coincidentally exactly the same number of sun hours as in April) and that was high for May, because normally that month provides around 225 hours of sunlight in Holland. The island of Texel especially came out shining again, with more than 300 hours of sunshine in the month.

Electricity Prices No Longer Negative

After the heavily negative electricity prices on May 1st (see also this article) those rates returned to calmer waters. The effective rates never dropped below zero for the rest of the month —> therefore no reasons to turn off your inverter! However, on some days there was a large difference between the lowest and highest dynamic rates on a single day, perhaps due to a combination of lots of sunshine and high temperatures late into the evening. On days like those, prices are low during the day due to the abundant supply of sunshine, but high in the evening when all the power-hungry air conditioners are switched on to cool down warm homes.

Imbalance Trading Less Popular

Imbalance trading seems to be gradually becoming less important. Energy supplier Frank Energie, for example, indicates that 'our hybrid optimization strategy is making less and less use of the imbalance market'. We already saw this coming with the disappointing results on the imbalance market of recent months, and also with the disappearance of net metering on the horizon.

What is also on the horizon is the longest day of the year! That's going to be wonderful, enjoying solar power from very early in the morning until late in the evening. Please take some time to check via the app (the SMA Energy App or the My SolarEdge app for example) whether everything is working (no earth leak has tripped, for example, during recent thunderstorms?), and enjoy all the free electricity from your roof. And if you see something isn't right, take a look at our FAQ page for help.