Solar Power

I have solar panels on my house in the UK.

I just cant understand why more private houses in Spain don't have them given the high

cost of electricity & the abundant sunlight.

I would be interested to hear if anybody has installed solar panels on their property in the Mazarron / Camposol

area.

Only really interested in solar PV ie solar electric generation not solar water heating.

Cheers

many houses in Spain are disconnecting solar panels because of a tax introduced last year. For some reason I am unable to copy a link but if you search solar power spain, you'll see a BBC report among others. This tax makes solar power costly and you can't sell power you don't use back into the grid

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24272061

Why would they disconnect existing panels, John? There wasn't any tax on solar panels introduced last year that I'm aware of.

It looks like according to the article that this tax hasn't been made law yet and might not be, but it has had the desired effect by stopping people putting up solar panels just in case it, the tax, comes into force. 

It's an extra tariff for being connected to the grid

The laws are waiting to go through the Spanish parliament. It means the end of "net metering" that is you can't build up a surplus by feeding into the grid and then use it later at no cost

http://www.thelocal.es/20140321/sun-tax-talk

I was appaled by this news because its an earth-friendly way to generate electricity and also cost effective but they want people to slow it down using taxes.

Spain wants to be very careful how it implements these laws or rules, if it intends to, due to the EU rulings about the saving of electricity, and energy in general, after all they are supposed to have the energy certificate in place for house's, they have banned the use of traditional light bulbs in favour of the energy saving one's, they have a large wind farm base.

I thought that under Eu rules individuals should be encouraged to move to solar power like the rest of europe and be financially rewarded to do so.

BUT, imagin if spain were forced by tge Eu to allow and pay a small price for a feed in tarriff a large number perhaps millions of homes would adopt this so we would have vast quantities of spare electric being produced in daytime and paid for by the ekectric company with no way of storage and possibly closing down power stations due to over production and then when demand is needed at night and in winter tgey would not have enough production power??? Oh and the fact tgat energy in spain is a cartel has nothing to do with it as it laces the pockets of the rich and powerful! !!!!

I thought that under Eu rules individuals should be encouraged to move to solar power like the rest of europe and be financially rewarded to do so.

Yes, your correct casperruby, they like all in the EU have to abide by these rules, but Spain is Spain, perhaps it's okay to make mention of a tax but it cannot be implemented so it does the trick for the time being.

As good as solar power is and great for a country like Spain I cant imagine everyone on a grand scale would rush out and buy it causing a shut down of the fat cats pay packets, a good efficient system isn't cheap to buy and the house still has to have the standing charge and electricity in case of.

I have never understood why so many house's in Spain which have swimming pools don't have the water heating side of solar panels fitted though, I deal with a few Americans in the US and some of the crazy heating system ways they have fitted up to heat the pools are amazing, and by all accounts they work really well for next to no outlay.

Baz1946 hi, should it not be the duty of the MPs and MEPs to make sure their constituents have feed in tarrifs and to force tge electricity suppliers to acept the Eu feed in tarrifs.  I agree that most people wont go down this path but I do agree that anyone with a pool and not using solar must be mad As a side issue on dec 13th the new Eu law comes into force which means all food outlets that sell any form of food, sweet or beverage must put all allergy information on menus its causing a lot of hassle in the uk to conform with very heavy fines for non compliance, I think another law that the spanish ruler's will no comply with

Just maybe the solar electricity system on a larger scale will come to Spain once the powers to be realise it cant be stopped due to the EU rules and laws, it has to be very short sighted of them to believe everybody in Spain will change over,  perhaps now is also the best time for the power companies to sit up and think about how they can get in on the act instead of sitting on the fence hoping the government will help them. Or of course it could well be the Spanish governments way of stopping it, "But you can have it if you pay an extra bit of tax".

Have to admit though it hasn't caught on as well as the government thought it would here in the UK, at the moment it's about 50 / 50 in favour and against, some who I know that have them say they cant see any big savings against the cost of fitting. 

Spain and compliance with EU rules? Yeh right!