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Thursday August 22, 2013

Spain intends to tax the sun! Whatever next?


I’d love to hear from any of you with views regarding Spain’s latest questionable initiative of taxing any householder using solar power. It seems an odd way to get the nation to buy into environmental programmes!



Please feel free to comment on this article. All comments are moderated, so it will appear after I have checked it. Thanks!


  1. This seems to be sheer stupidity. I know that they need the money to pay off the multibillion debt to power producers that was the result of massive subsidies for many years. Totally self-inflicted. Why not just stop subsidising? It seems like one must not upset the producers or they can start crying. Even worse they might not want to subsidize the politicians.
    I just hope that our finca is remote enough so we will not be forced to connect to the grid.

    * by Anders Ölund | Aug 23, 12:06 am

  2. Hi Anders, I totally agree. The producers have the government eating out of their hand! I imagine your rural finca will be OK if you haven’t had notification yet. I shall keep my fingers crossed for you.

    * by anna nicholas | Aug 23, 11:38 pm

  3. Whatever next?
    Well if they are going to tax for use of the sun, then it should be sunbathing tourists, perhaps per hour of sunbathe!
    This is absurd.
    We are installing solar hot water and our panel is made in Spain. Promoting Solar, not taxing it would create economic activity in production, installation, service and support.
    They should get Spain good at things it does well already and take those things out to the international market, hence creating growth/jobs.
    Why do I always see Orange Juice from Florida in our adverts/shops when I also see lots of rotting oranges in the groves in Spain, it would be cheaper to bring it from Spain that Florida!
    Why do I not see more Spanish wines in our shops, there are some really good, reasonably priced ones that could compete with the offers in our Supermarkets.

    * by Carolyn Blanc | Aug 25, 12:33 pm

  4. So true, Carolyn. I also get fed up seeing foreign produce in the supermarkets when we have such fantastic local veg, fruit and wines on the island. They tell me that local supplies wouldn’t be big enough to serve the big supermarkets, but I really find that hard to believe. If they offered more opportunities to local farmers etc they’d be motivated to grow more. Chicken and egg!

    * by anna nicholas | Aug 25, 01:17 pm