The European Union has just recognised in June that anyone who wants to produce energy for consumption, storage or sale on the net has every right to do so. The EU’s interinstitutional agreement calls into question the sun tax that is in force in Spain for installations over 10 kW. The directive, which harms large electricity companies, will enter into force in 2021.

However, given that the new government in Madrid is against the weight of electric self-consumption, it is expected that it will eliminate the sun tax earlier. To this end, it maintains a majority position in the Parliament of Madrid, where pp is the only force that opposes it. In this way, it is intended to strengthen citizen participation in the wave of energy transition aimed at a carbon-free economy by promoting the self-consumption of renewable energies.

In the state, the use of solar energy in the home and the consumption of energy generated is legal and small-scale is tax-free. The need for energy in a normal house does not exceed 3 or 4 kw. Therefore, being below the 10 kw limit, they have not borne any load. However, small farms of more than 10 kW, many of them rural, have to pay for the placement of solar panels.

The last measure that has so far regulated this situation is that of 2015 and has regulated two possibilities for self-consumption. In the first, the installation is not associated with the distribution network and, therefore, does not market the generated energy. In the second case, the surplus generated above consumption is intended for red.En the latter case, it is necessary to register as an electricity producer and if the installation exceeds 10 kW it is necessary to pay two access tolls. One prize is fixed and the second one depends on the energy generated.

These burdens have led to the belief that solar energy for its own consumption is unviable. As is usual in technological innovation processes, costs decrease over time. The costs of solar panels have also been reduced and, taking into account the charges mentioned, the installations are currently viable, although the number of taxes implies an extension of the depreciation period. In the last seven years, the costs of solar installation have been reduced by 76%, according to the 2018 report on the state’s self-consumption situation.

Solar PV currently accounts for 3% of electricity demand in the State. With the abolition of the Sun Tax, actors in the sector expect this percentage to rise to 10 per cent by 2030. In the case of other renewable energy sources, these could exceed half of the electricity demand by that year. The behaviour of oligopolies in the sector has yet to be seen. The logic of electric self-consumption can undermine their business capacity and, of course, their political and economic power will be used to continue with the vertical model. On the other hand, the success of cooperatives promoting renewable energies such as Goiener, Som Energia and the REScoop network support the transition to a decentralized and sustainable energy model. Consumer choice and, above all, the new law for ecological transition, announced in the State, are key to changing the energy model.