As energy crisis bites, Spaniards snap up solar panels

Demand for solar panels has shot up to unprecedented levels in Spain as Europe's energy crisis shows no sign of letting up, in a welcome boost for a sector with huge potential.

Businesses and public entities are also getting on board, driven not only by the energy crisis linked to the war in Ukraine but also encouraged by the public funding available through the EU's vast Covid recovery plan.

All of this has given an unprecedented boost to rooftop solar in the Iberian peninsula.

"Until about a year ago, if you looked at the roofs in your town or city, you would hardly see any solar panels for self-generation... but that's totally different now," said Francisco Valverde, a renewable energy specialist at Menta Energia consultancy.

Jose Donoso, head of Spanish solar power lobby UNEF which groups some 780 businesses, agreed.

Solar power has become "very competitive" with a cost that is "90 percent lower than what it was 14 years ago," Donoso said.

UNEF says the installed rooftop solar capacity should exceed two gigawatts this year, a figure more than three times higher than in 2020.

As Europe's sunniest country, Spain was one of the leaders in solar power at the start of the century until the 2008 financial crisis halted the boom.

A right-wing government threw shade on the sector by cutting subsidies. It then introduced a tax on households that sold excess electricity to the national grid, a move derided by critics as a "tax on the sun".