‘Record’ petition against Spanish tax on solar self-consumption and storage

LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email

In less than a week, more than 180,000 Spanish citizens have signed a petition against plans for a new ‘sun tax’ on use of batteries for residential self-consumption of solar energy in Spain.

Meanwhile, more than 150,000 citizens signed a petition calling for the immediate resignation of José Manuel Soria, the minister of industry, energy and tourism, whose department put forward the draft law.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

The new tax could increase payback time for solar-plus-storage owners from around 16 years to 31 years. Hefty fines for infringement, capped at €60 million (US$67.7 million), had also been proposed, which is double the fine for releasing nuclear waste.

The tax applies to grid-connected solar PV installations of up to 15kW. Depending on the size of the installation, the fee would be from €8.9 (US$10) per kilowatt for domestic consumers up to €36 (US$40.6) per kW for medium size businesses.

José Donoso general director of the Spanish PV association, Union Espanola Foltovoltaico (UNEF), told PV Tech that more than 35,000 comments against the minister were presented. He said the government internet server crashed several times under the number of signatures and comments. He also said the petition had “record” numbers in such a short time.

Waiting for the ministry to make a decision, Donoso said: “We will see if the rules will change, or only cosmetic change, or nothing.”

A statement on Avaaz, the online platform for the petition, said: “The Ministry of Industry is working around the clock to protect the powerful electric oligopoly imposing new barriers to economically asphyxiate those citizens who wish to produce their own electricity using solar energy. Let us unite to prevent this shameful [sun tax]”.

You can sign the petition here (Spanish language).

More than 150,000 citizens also signed a petition calling for the immediate resignation of José Manuel Soria, the minister of industry, energy and tourism.

11 November 2025
San Diego, USA
The 2024 Summit included innovative new features including a ‘Crash Course in Battery Asset Management’, Ask-Me-Anything formats and debate-style sessions. You can expect to meet and network with all the key industry players again in 2025 from major US asset owners, operators, RTOs and ISOs, optimizers, software and analytics providers, technical consultancies, O&M technology providers and more.

Read Next

July 11, 2025
Allegro Energy, an Australian-based developer of water-based redox flow battery energy storage solutions, has claimed its microemulsion flow battery (MeFB) could be tailored to support the “exponential growth” of data centres.
July 10, 2025
IPP Lydian Energy has successfully closed on a US$233 million project financing for three battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Texas, US.
July 10, 2025
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has entered into a settlement agreement with IPP LS Power to direct cleanup after a lithium-ion battery fire at the company’s Gateway energy storage facility in San Diego, California. 
July 10, 2025
AGL Energy has acquired the Yadnarie solar thermal project in South Australia from Photon Energy, featuring 720MWh of LDES.
July 10, 2025
Zen Energy has received approval for a 200MW solar-plus-storage project, which could feature a BESS between 4 and 8 hours in duration.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter