What price solar? (caution - includes satire)

What happens when a country invests too heavily and too quickly in solar power?

Take a look at the debacle that's going on in Spain at the moment. Due to the global financial crisis, the whole country is in dire straits in general, but they've also been pouring money virtually unchecked into solar generation for over 10 years.

Spain gets a lot of sun. Brits love it as a holiday destination for exactly that reason.  Using solar panels to make use of all that sun seems on the surface a very sound and sensible plan.

The Spanish Government have been paying solar generators $556 per 1000kWh (mWh) for their electricity. This is way higher than the UK  - I'm getting £149 per mWh under the feed-in tariff.  At the same time, electricity generated from coal or gas plants was only being paid at $52 per mWh.

Whilst I agree wholeheartedly with the principle that it is good to encourage a move from coal/gas generation to solar/renewables, it seems the Spanish Government have rather mismanaged the finances of this transition.

Spain's electricity generation capacity is now 60% more than their peak national consumption. For a number of years, Spain have been paying for electricity they don't use and don't need.  That's quite a big problem.

In Spain, there is a huge amount of small-scale household generation (people like me who have bought solar panels and stuck them on their roof to make their own electricity).  The Spanish government have actively encouraged this with incentives like the feed-in tariff we have in the UK.  But the Government there are now faced with such massive financial deficits,  they have taken some unprecedented and frankly, rather bonkers steps with new legislation due to come in later this year.

1. Anyone who generates all their own electricity from solar panels, but is too far away from the grid to be connected, will have to have a meter installed. They will then have to pay a tax on the total amount of electricity they generate and use.

2. Everyone else who generates their own electricity from solar panels must be grid connected and will also pay a tax on the total amount of electricity they generate and use.

Anyone who doesn't comply will be liable to pay a fine up to $30 million. Yes, I did say million.

Taxing the sun? I think they've been sitting in it for too long.

The background to this situation can be read on a number of news websites:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-08-01/spain-solar-producers-burned-by-plan-to-penalize-homegrown-power
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2013/08/19/out-of-ideas-and-in-debt-spain-sets-sights-on-taxing-the-sun/
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/annanicholas/10151634/why-spain-has-sold-out-the-sun/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-01/spain-hurts-solar-with-plan-to-penalize-power-producers.html

Perhaps the Spanish government would appreciate some of my suggestions to help them out of this financial predicament:

What about people who collect rainwater in water butts?  They should have flow meters installed and be made to pay water tax on all they collect and use.  That'll stop them defrauding the water companies out of their rightful income.

And as for those deviants who grow their own food, I mean, really, that's quite weird.  Everyone knows food comes from shops.  Besides, they're cheating Tescos* out of honest turnover, threatening employment. Where is the sense of community spirit?  They're practically terrorists!  Although I must confess I've not quite worked out the details of soil tax yet.

Finally, people have been taking breathing for granted for far too long now - I think it's high time air should be taxed.  I mean, it costs a lot of money keeping all that air nice and clean, what with all the poisons and toxins that industry has to pump out - no one wants to breathe that.  It's only fair that the people breathing it should pay to have it cleaned.



*other supermarkets are also available, see local press for details