The Spaniards are increasingly resorting to the installation of solar panels, especially with the recorded increase in fuel prices, which constitutes an opportunity for Spain to reduce its lag in this sector, which has great potential.
“It’s sunny almost all year round,” says Paloma Otrera, pointing to the solar panels on the roof of her house in Pozuelo de Alarcón, an affluent neighborhood on the outskirts of Madrid. “You should take advantage of the sun’s rays,” adds Basma.
Similar to what many Spaniards have done in recent months, this employee of the aeronautical sector addressed what is called “personal consumption” represented by the people who produce the energy they need by themselves, and in September she installed in her home 13 solar panels with a power output of 4,000 W. 5 kW.
The 50-year-old woman says that this step is not a “simple investment”, but it is worth it, especially with the “help” provided by the state and the “savings” it adopts in terms of energy consumption, noting that her utility bills have halved since the beginning of the fall.
The company “Ingle Solar”, which installed the panels, says they comprise “50 to 80%” of the power what the family needs. Joaquin Gasca, commercial director of the company, which has 200 employees, confirms that the question is “interesting in the light of current electricity prices”.
In the space of two years, the revenues of the company, founded in 2005 in Barcelona, have increased fivefold, while it expects its revenues to increase further in 2023. “The demands are falling on us,” he says Gaska, referring to “extraordinary activities” in the company.
“sinks” or “roofs”
“Personal consumption” did not register a demand in Spain as it currently does, driven on the one hand by the fuel crisis following the Ukrainian war, and by aid linked to the European recovery plan.
Says the specialist energies The renewable energy company, Minta Energia, said: “Solar panels weren’t widespread a year ago on the roofs of Spanish cities and villages, but today the whole situation has changed.”
As for the Secretary General of the Spanish Solar Energy Federation, José Donoso, he makes the same observation. And he explains that the Spaniards “noticing that their neighbors are adopting personal consumption, and they see them happy and saving money, which encourages them to take the same step.”
The union, which includes 780 companies in solar energy sectorHe indicated that the “quantity of panels installed” in homes in 2022 exceeded two thousand megawatts, which is almost double that of 2021 (1203 megawatts), and four times higher than that recorded in 2020 (596 megawatts).
Donoso confirms it solar power It has become a “very competitive” field because its cost is now 90% lower than it was 14 years ago”, noting that “people have realized that they have to invest their money in installing panels on the roofs of their houses instead of depositing them in banks”.
“sun tax”
This boom for the sector is a recovery. Spain, the first country in Europe for exposure to sunlight, was 15 years ago one of the most successful countries in the field of solar energy, but the crisis that hit the year 2008 hindered the growth of the sector and Madrid saw a decline in this respect compared to a large number of European countries.
The result of this decline was to end state support for the industry, and then the Conservative government imposed a tax on households producing produce in 2015. electricity And by transferring part of the quantities produced to the public network, in a move that its detractors have called a “tax on the sun”.
This mechanism, which environmental activists say was adopted under pressure from big energy companies worried about competition, was abandoned after a left-wing party came to power in 2018 and stepped up its aid to this sector.
And Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez confirmed in late October that personal consumption makes it possible to free oneself “from large energy groups”, predicting that solar energy capacity will reach 39,000 megawatts by 2030, of which 9 to 14,000 will come from personal consumption .
Although its potential is exceptional, last year solar energy provided 9.9% of the amount of electricity in Spain, while wind energy provided 23.3%, nuclear energy 20.8 % and gas-fired power plants 17.1%.
Currently, “only 4-5% of Spanish homes are equipped with solar panels. Therefore, this sector has a lot of room for progress”, according to Joaquín Gasca, who expects solar energy to become “the first source of energy” in Spain .
