The Problem Solar Spain In A Nutshell

In early 2008, the Spanish government created a law for one year for energy companies to buy power generated by solar energy at special rates. This meant that solar energy is competitive, but only for a year.

This resulted in a huge explosion of installed solar capacity, more than 3 gigawatts in a year, enough to displace coal plants 5. This number was much higher than expected, but everything comes at a cost, not only in electricity bills in people.

Now that the subsidy no longer exists, artificially inflating the Spanish solar market is shrinking. An excess of solar panels are lowering prices to where there are no profits, and installers are struggling to keep their jobs. But yet many facilities are being audited to see if the work completed within the grant, which is being given to fraud.

The subsidy will apply only to 500 MW this year, and prices that have fallen had to pay. And while there remain many solar panels, no one expects that growth will be like last year.

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