Installations isolated from the electrical grid.
Consumers from Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands.
Cogeneration and train braking facilities.
These exceptions were broad enough that, in the end, very few people ended up paying this tax.
When was the sun tax repealed?
The repeal of the tax on the sun did not take long to arrive. With the arrival of the PSOE to the Government, in 2018, a Royal Decree-Law was issued that rendered the measure list of christmas island consumer email adopted by the previous Executive ineffective.
A shift was then undertaken towards an energy policy that attempts to promote the presence of renewable energies and self-consumption, thus following the guidelines set by the European Union.
Why was the sun tax repealed?
When you decide to switch to photovoltaic self-consumption, you do so with two things in mind: your contribution to improving the environment, and profitability , that is, the savings you will achieve on your electricity bill.
By taxing the use of solar panels and other forms of self-consumption, the sun tax acted as a disincentive to install these types of systems, thereby causing Spain to fall behind in meeting its sustainability and energy efficiency goals.
Because the law not only established a tax, but also eliminated any type of compensation to the generator for the excess energy dumped into the conventional grid. So there was little or no incentive to invest in installing solar panels at home.
You may not remember it, but there were a lot of hoaxes about it at the time. There was even talk that fines would be imposed on those who did not have their solar panels properly connected. This was never true, but it contributed to generating a black legend around the solar tax , which for years caused many people to have no interest in self-consumption of energy. Because they saw it as something with more disadvantages than advantages.
What happened after the repeal of the sun tax?
The first effect was that those who were subject to this tax were no longer subject to it. But the most beneficial effect was that measures began to be approved to encourage self-consumption, for example, simplifying the bureaucratic procedures to legalize the installation of solar panels.
Since 2019, it has been possible to legalise the installation in just one week, so that it can be operational as soon as possible and begin its amortisation period.
Following the abolition of the tax on the sun , the Renewable Energy Foundation (FER) presented a series of proposals to make a transition towards self-consumption. Among them were:
That photovoltaic energy becomes one of the pillars of energy demand.
Create an open and unlimited regulatory framework for facilities dedicated to self-consumption.
Allowing the consumer to become an energy generator, so that they can buy, generate, store and sell.
These proposals were taken into account and have served as a basis for developing new measures to promote self-consumption of electricity. Such as the approval of collective self-consumption or the elimination of the need for installations with a power of less than 10 kW to request permits from the electricity company.
How is the situation now?
Six years after we said goodbye to the tax on the sun , you only need to take a walk through any neighborhood to notice the change.
The rooftops of buildings and the roofs of single-family homes are filling up with solar panels. The rise in energy prices and the simplification of procedures for installing photovoltaic self-consumption systems have provided the best possible boost for the development of solar energy.
Spain is one of the countries in Europe that receives the most hours of daylight each year, and this is an exceptional condition that we should not waste.
In addition, proactive measures have also been adopted, such as the implementation of aid and subsidies for the installation of solar panels .
The removal of the tax, the lower cost of materials and installations, and direct aid are leading to more and more households switching to self-consumption of electricity. They are achieving savings of up to 70% on their electricity bill, which allows the installations to be paid off in a period of five to 11 years, when previously it took an average of 25 or 30 years.
