The Council of Ministers approved at the end of 2015, the Royal Decree that imposes what it calls «backup toll»To energy self-consumption, popularly known as the tax on the sun
Unfortunately, the worst suspicions of consumer organizations, environmental groups, business associations and the opposition have come true. They had been warning of this fact for a long time, since 2 years before the Ministry of Industry announced its objectives
Based on the report that recommended some changes to the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), and the subsequent approval of the Council of State; the Government approved this new decree without any problem.
The sun tax approved under the mandate of José Manuel Soria in the Ministry of Industry is one of those laws that no citizen understands. Why Germany, a country with much less sun than us, has put more plates in a year than Spain in all its history ?.
The truth is that Spain was a great promoter of renewable energy at the beginning of the century, even offering bonuses to those who installed solar panels. However, speculation in the market and the measures of the PP government from 2011 they began to complicate this situation.
How can you charge your own energy?
Normally, the consumer who has plates installed and generates his own electricity is connected to the network, from which it receives extra energy to cover its needs, it is not always sunny, it may be foggy. Furthermore, many times what is produced is not enough; and if there is excess it can be sold to the network.
For the former Minister of Industry, José Manuel Soria, “what it is about is to tell the consumer that self-consumption is fine, but when they are going to use the network they we pay together It also has to contribute because, if not, the rest of us would be paying a part of our own consumption ». A minister who had to resign for his off-shore companies in Panama.
Grant
The ministry has considered that exempting from the payment of the sun tax would be a subsidy at the expense of other consumers. In the press conference that took place after the Council of Ministers, the former minister Soria insisted that self-consumers must pay transport and distribution tolls "to the extent that they use" the system and contribute "like any other consumer." at other costs.
Thus put it seems fair, and nobody denies it, but when you go into detail, things change, as the coordinator of the social economy company Ecooo (Mario Sánchez-Herrero): «The logical thing is that these consumers pay for this support (sun tax), when and only in those moments when they need to use the Internet, and not, as established in the newly approved regulation, in the moments in which they are not consuming from the network, that is to say in those moments in which the photovoltaic panels are working ».
What price will the sun tax have?
In the case of residential consumers, approximately 9 euros plus VAT per year per kW of power will be charged for each panel they have at home (sun tax). According to several experts, the disadvantage for this type of consumer is not so much the toll, but rather that they do not have no return for the energy that they produce and dump into the network.
In fact, to the electrician on duty, you might give away 50% of all the energy produced by your installation, which by the way: Endesa, Iberdrola, Gas Natural or whatever electrician, is going to sell it to your neighbor at 12 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). That really is a business and the rest is nonsense.
In the largest facilities, industrial ones, consumers will pay two tolls. Those 9 euros plus VAT for each kW of power of the panels plus a variable one associated with the cost of energy. "It is the one that really impacts" according to several experts in the sector, and it will be about 5 cents for each kWh that they produce and consume.
Due to the cost it has for the system, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands will be exempt from the toll.
Who does this decree favor?
Industry defends that the Royal Decree aims to guarantee the economic and financial stability of the system and prevent all consumers from «subsidize»Self-consumption, for them is the« solidarity toll ».
But to see the system, we would have to analyze the income statement of REE (Red Eléctrica Española), and that of the large electricity companies, such as Iberdrola, Endesa…. We can see that in all of them the results are billionaires, not the global results, but the results in Spain.
When the government speaks of "the system," many organizations They ask to speak of "the income statement of the large electricity companies."
In fact, the Government This same year, he vetoed the bill that advocates electric self-consumption without charges and that was supported by all political parties, except the PP and Foro Asturias. Its justification is that it would mean a decrease in income and 162 million euros per year would not be collected via taxes.
According to the government, it is self-consumption, it is unsupportive
According to the Executive of Mariano Rajoy, by reducing consumption who produces their own energy, it forces those who do not have such facilities to assume higher costs of system maintenance. In addition, that photovoltaic installations are quite expensive, and therefore it is something for the rich that accentuates the social inequality of our country.
Several organizations such as the OCU dismantle these two arguments. First, they defend the benefits of self-consumption for the common good, "incompatible with the idea of non-solidarity", such as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, imports of Fossil fuels, improvement of the balance of payments, employment. Second, they affirm that with a regulation of self-consumption similar to the one that is being approved in the rest of the world that encourages aid for the acquisition and installation of equipment, the electricity from the panels is significantly cheaper than what we currently pay.
Why would the Government want to favor the large electricity companies?
Several consumer organizations recall that "although it may sound demagogic and easy" - that revolving doors, when a politician goes from public to private, are not limited to the best-known cases of the highest positions, such as the relationship of the former president of the government Felipe González with Gas Natural Fenosa, or José María Aznar with Endesa, but rather there is a whole string of middle management positions that count on those doors to keep turning.
But in addition, he points out, the Government defends that “important things, such as energy supply, must be taken care of by large companies, and we need great spanish champions to have weight in the world and that our economy is viable. That happens by ensuring that in a captive market, they have sufficient income so that they do not lose their footing in the fierce competition that they maintain with similar companies from other countries in the world. »
The boom problem
As explained by several experts:
“The problem with which the utilities find themselves is that they overinvested in combined cycle plants, production plants that use gas to produce electricity. These plants, due to the crisis, are working 800-1.000 hours a year, when they would have to be 5.000-6.000 hours. If self-consumption were allowed with reasonable regulations, not because it favors it but does not harm it, instead of working 800 hours they would work 100, and therefore it would still be more complicated recover from the huge investments they made »
Do our European neighbors have a sun tax?
As you remember the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (Unef). Spain is a country with abundant sun, where it invites to promote this type of energy, it is the only country in which a regulation is being prepared "so that self-consumption (sun tax) does not develop."
Portugal
Without going any further, our neighbor Portugal «allows the development of self-consumption of up to 1MW without any type of toll and the net balance is made by paying the price of the surplus energy at 90% of its market price »
France
In France it has decided to bet on photovoltaic energy. As part of the plan to triple its photovoltaic energy by 2023, the French energy regulator CRE has convened several tender for renewable energy projects commercial self-consumption.
The plan includes projects that could be considered medium-sized, with a capacity between 100 kW and 500 kW. To access the aid, the owners of the installation it has to self-consume more than 50% of the energy generated, selling the rest to the French public electricity company EDF. These sales will be encouraged with an extra help of 50 euros per megawatt hour in this first phase, down to 40 in the last call for the plan in 2020.
Germany
In Germany, large electricity companies such as E.ON promote their customers' self-consumption. Since last April, its customers will be able to produce their own solar energy and store it without limits, to use it later whenever and however they want. The service is called Solar Cloud- Solar energy producers will be able to store an unlimited amount in a virtual electricity account and then consume from it when they need it.
At the moment there is no charge
Such a fuss for nothing. The famous sun tax that we have been talking about in this article, implemented at the end of 2015 it is not being applied.
It seems that the former head of the Government's energy policy did not have time to complete the regulatory development that the application of that policy requires. levy on photovoltaic installations for remaining connected to the supply network.
According to the general director of the UNEF: The sun tax law has been approved, but the ministerial orders that will develop the norm are lacking. That is why the Government has not yet charged not a euro for the sun tax. In addition, the opposition is trying to permanently deactivate that law to prevent it from going forward.
In any case, that toll was the icing on a cake of cuts initiated by the popular party as of 2010, which left renewable energies in general without energy sources. production bonuses. Those cuts suddenly paralyzed the development of clean technologies and, in particular, photovoltaics and electricity self-consumption.