THE SHORT ANSWER
A typical solar panel project in the Netherlands lands at EUR 7,300 to EUR 14,550 in 2026, with a midpoint near EUR 10,900. Gross margin on that midpoint is usually 18 to 28 percent, or EUR 1,950 to EUR 3,050. Against a modelled cost per lead of EUR 100 to EUR 150 and 3 to 5 exclusive leads per signed customer, acquisition consumes roughly 9.2 to 39.9 percent of the gross margin on one job.
Job value is the number every other commercial decision divides into, which is why roughly right beats precisely wrong. This page gives a modelled band for solar panel work in the Netherlands in 2026, then does the arithmetic that makes a band useful: what it leaves as gross margin, and how much of that margin a customer costs to win.
The band is wide on purpose. What moves a project from one end to the other is system size in kilowatt-peak, whether a battery is included, and roof complexity. Local context matters too: in the Netherlands, Dutch homeowners compare quotes online more aggressively than any other market in this list, so lead-to-quote rates are high but so is competition.
The numbers, at a glance
Typical project value: EUR 7,300 to EUR 14,550 for a standard solar panel job in the Netherlands, midpoint around EUR 10,900
Gross margin: 18 to 28 percent of contract value, which is EUR 1,950 to EUR 3,050 on the midpoint job
Cost to win one customer: EUR 300 to EUR 800 in lead spend, assuming 3 to 5 exclusive leads per signed job at EUR 100 to EUR 150 each
Acquisition as a share of margin: 9.2 to 39.9 percent of the gross margin on a single job, before any repeat or referral value
What a typical solar panel project is worth in the Netherlands
The solar panel band above describes a complete, permitted, installed project for a private homeowner. It excludes VAT, excludes anything a landlord or housing association would tender competitively, and excludes emergency call-out work, which prices on a different logic entirely.
What separates the bottom of the band from the top is system size in kilowatt-peak, whether a battery is included, and roof complexity. The Netherlands is a market of roughly 17.9 million people with very high internet penetration, and the number of installers chasing that population is what decides how firmly you can quote the upper half.
Bottom of the band, around EUR 7,300. A straightforward job on an accessible property with standard specification and nothing unexpected behind the wall.
Midpoint, around EUR 10,900. The job most quotes are written for, with one or two upgrades the customer asked for after the first visit.
Top of the band, around EUR 14,550. Larger scope, difficult access, or a household that chose the premium option in every category.
When these numbers say do not buy leads
Be willing to reach the negative conclusion. If acquisition already consumes more than a quarter of gross margin at this job value, buying more volume makes the problem bigger rather than smaller. Here that line is crossed at roughly EUR 500 per signed customer, and the modelled cost is EUR 300 to EUR 800.
Three situations where the honest answer is no. You cannot call a new enquiry within an hour during working hours. Your quote-to-win rate on solar panel work is below one in eight. Or your diary is already full for the next six weeks, in which case extra leads become slower callbacks on all of them rather than extra jobs. Fix the constraint first; the leads will still be for sale next month.
Where the margin actually sits in a solar quote
Modules have been priced as a commodity since 2023 and the homeowner can check that line against a wholesaler in ninety seconds. The margin sits in what they cannot price: the mounting system, the DC and AC cabling, inverter selection, the work at the consumer unit and the design itself. Installers who discount to win usually take a percentage off the whole quote, which strips margin out of the labour lines that were carrying it. Holding the installation lines and letting the module line float with the market protects the same contract value with a much better outcome.
The lever is scope, not negotiation
Every ratio on this page improves faster from the revenue side than from the cost side. Adding a battery to a solar panel job adds roughly 40 to 70 percent to the contract value on the same site visit, and it is sold to a household that has already chosen you. Winning one more customer at the same margin costs EUR 300 to EUR 800 in lead spend; upgrading the scope of one you have already won costs a better quote and twenty minutes.
Price the option, do not mention it. An option with a number attached is bought roughly three times as often as an option described in a sentence.
Put both versions on one page. Two priced columns beat two separate documents, because the comparison is the sale.
Give the upgrade a reason that is not money. Noise, comfort, disruption avoided later, and a guarantee that covers the whole job rather than half of it.
Two jobs in the same house can carry very different tax
Dutch VAT on home improvement is not uniform. Since January 2023 the supply and installation of solar panels on and near homes is zero rated, while most other installation and fitting work stays at the standard 21 percent. A household weighing one measure against another is therefore comparing inclusive prices that were built on different rules, and the gap has nothing to do with either contractor's margin. Two practical points. Always state which rate you have applied and why, because the customer has seen a neighbour's quote built on a different basis. And where your work is standard rated, put the argument on scope, warranty and start date rather than on headline price, because on price alone you are losing a comparison you never entered.
The three lines homeowners argue about
Scaffolding, the consumer unit upgrade and the cable run from roof to inverter are what turn a signed solar quote into a renegotiation. All three are invisible in the marketing and all three can add EUR 500 to EUR 2,000 once a surveyor has been on site. Absorbing them is the wrong answer. Either survey before the price is fixed, or state a provisional sum for each with the condition that triggers it. A quote that arrives EUR 1,200 higher after the survey loses more deals than the same total quoted honestly on day one.
A large slice of Dutch housing is decided by a committee
Roughly a fifth of Dutch homes sit in apartment buildings governed by a Vereniging van Eigenaren, the owners' association, and anything touching the roof, the facade, the frames or the shared services needs a vote at the members' meeting. Meetings are often annual. The sales cycle is measured in months, the decision maker is a board or a managing agent rather than a householder, and the contract when it lands covers a whole block rather than one dwelling, which puts it an order of magnitude above the private band. The mistake is running these enquiries through the same pipeline as private work and writing them off when nobody signs in three weeks. Ask on the first call whether the property is part of a VvE, and if it is, quote for the building and diarise the meeting date.
What is actually left after materials and labour
Strip materials and installation labour out of a solar panel contract in the Netherlands and 18 to 28 percent remains. On the EUR 10,900 midpoint that is EUR 1,950 to EUR 3,050, and it is the only figure on this page with any bearing on whether a marketing budget is affordable.
Two businesses with identical turnover can therefore have completely different capacity to buy work. Before comparing your acquisition spend with anyone else's, convert it into a percentage of gross margin. Ten percent is conservative, 20 percent is normal, and above 30 percent you are financing growth out of next year's profit, which is a legitimate decision but should be a decision rather than an accident.
Break-even on a block of 45 leads
A single lead price is hard to judge. A block is not. 45 exclusive leads cost EUR 2,925 and should convert into 9 to 15 signed solar panel jobs at a midpoint of EUR 10,900 each, which is EUR 98,300 to EUR 163,800 of work booked and EUR 17,700 to EUR 45,850 of gross margin.
Break-even therefore arrives inside the first job. The useful question is not whether EUR 65 per lead is expensive in the abstract, but what happens to that arithmetic if your conversion is half the modelled rate, because that is the scenario worth planning for.
Five numbers to pull from your own accounts this week
Median contract value across the last twenty signed solar panel jobs in the Netherlands, taken from invoices rather than from quotes.
Median gross margin on those same twenty, after materials and installation labour but before overheads.
Total enquiries received in the same period, counting the ones that never answered the phone, so the ratio is honest.
Median time from enquiry to first call attempt, which is the variable that moves cost per customer furthest.
Acquisition cost as a percentage of median gross margin. That single percentage is what you compare across suppliers, markets and years.
How these figures were built
These figures are a benchmark model, not a survey. They combine an industry base range observed across Western European home-improvement campaigns with a country multiplier for local auction pressure. Treat them as a band to negotiate against, not a quote. Job values here start from an industry band for solar panel and are scaled by a construction cost index for the Netherlands of 1.04 against a Benelux baseline of 1.00. That index tracks labour and materials, deliberately separate from the advertising auction multiplier used on our cost-per-lead pages, because the two move independently.
How Flock Leads prices this
If the arithmetic works at your conversion rate, this is what buying that volume costs outright, with no retainer sitting on top of it:
Starter - 10 leads for EUR 750, which is EUR 75 per lead
Growth - 25 leads for EUR 1,750, which is EUR 70 per lead
Scale - 45 leads for EUR 2,925, which is EUR 65 per lead
Pro - 70 leads for EUR 4,340, which is EUR 62 per lead
Max - 90 leads for EUR 5,400, which is EUR 60 per lead
No retainer, no contract term, and no lead sent to a second business. Unused volume rolls over under the Flock Lead Promise.
Want leads like this in your pipeline?
Flock runs the campaigns, screens the enquiries and hands you only the ones that match your service area, job size and capacity. You pay per lead, not per month.
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Related answers
Frequently asked questions
What is the average solar panel job worth in the Netherlands in 2026?
Modelled at EUR 7,300 to EUR 14,550 for a complete installed project for a private homeowner, excluding VAT, with a midpoint near EUR 10,900. The width is real: system size in kilowatt-peak, whether a battery is included, and roof complexity all move the figure materially.
How does this compare with what a lead costs?
A modelled exclusive solar panel lead in the Netherlands runs EUR 100 to EUR 150, and it takes 3 to 5 of them to sign a customer. Against gross margin of EUR 1,950 to EUR 3,050 on the midpoint job, that is 9.2 to 39.9 percent of the margin from one project.
What gross margin should I expect on solar panel work?
18 to 28 percent of contract value is the working band, which is EUR 1,950 to EUR 3,050 on the EUR 10,900 midpoint job. Below 18 percent you are either buying materials badly or quoting labour at a rate that does not cover a wet week.
How much should I spend on winning one customer?
Set it as a share of gross margin rather than as an absolute. Ten to 20 percent of margin is normal for an established business, and 30 percent is a deliberate growth position that pays back on the second and third job. Here 20 percent of margin would be about EUR 400 per signed customer.
Why do you use a different index for job value and lead cost?
Because they measure different things. Lead prices track how many installers are bidding in a local advertising auction. Job values track labour rates and material logistics. Poland has cheap clicks and cheap labour, Ireland has mid-priced clicks and very expensive labour, and a single multiplier would misprice both.
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