The Government eliminates the sun tax or charges for electric consumption
The Council of Ministers today approved a royal decree-law of measures against energy poverty that repeals the charge imposed on self-consumers for the energy generated and consumed in the facility itself, which has come to be known as' sun tax '
The Government has decided to eliminate, in addition, other barriers that, in its opinion, made it difficult and discouraged the implementation of electric self-consumption in Spain.
Among the measures outlined by the minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, in the press conference after the Council of Ministers, are the simplification of bureaucratic and technical procedures for self-consumption facilities and the elimination of the obligation that above 100 kilowatts (KW) are registered in the administrative register of electric power production facilities.
It also recognizes the right to self-consumption shared by one or several consumers, which will allow economies of scale to be exploited, as well as the right to self-consume electricity without tolls or charges.
According to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, the development of self-consumption guarantees consumers access to cheaper and more respectful alternatives to the planet, contributes to reducing the needs of the electricity grid, generates greater energy independence, reduces gas emissions from greenhouse effect and creates employment.
The minister has said that the suppression of the 'sun tax' gives her special satisfaction, because "finally this country is free of the great absurdity that international experts have mocked."
The previous government of the PP vetoed in March a proposal of law supported by all the parliamentary groups of the Congress, except PP and Forum Asturias, that defended the elimination of charges to the electrical self-consumption.
The Executive then argued to veto that this measure would reduce budget revenues, since they would stop collecting 162 million euros annually through taxes and, in addition, increase the tariff deficit.
In Spain, the electrical power registered in self-consumption facilities amounts to 1,196 megawatts (MW), of which 170 MW correspond to installations of renewable energy sources, and there is barely more than a thousand self-consumers, compared to more than one million that exists in Germany.
Within self-consumption with renewables, the contributions corresponding to the energy use of biogas (127 MW) and photovoltaic solar energy (28 MW) stand out.
