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Spain's financial crisis claims another victim: the solar power industry

Guardian; 30/03/2011

In December 2010 the Spanish govenment slashed the subsidy level paid to new and existing solar PV projects. Spain's three biggest utility companies - Iberdrola, Endesa and Gas Natural - had been urging the government to take action to stem the wave of subsidised renewable projects being built. In 2010 Spain's solar pv industry received subsidies of €2.6bn (£2.28bn), while the utilities have so far paid out €20bn to subsidise solar and wind projects and are still waiting for the government to pay them back. About two-thirds of Spain's current PV capacity was installed in 2008 alone, before a planned tariff cut came into force in 2009. Spain now has 10 times the amount of solar pv capacity the government had planned for by 2010.

News Item details

Websites: http://www.guardian.co.uk

Keywords: Solar - Feed-in Tariff

Countries: Spain -

Subjects: Banking, finance and investment, Project Management, Policy and Governance, Economics, business and commerce, Transformation [Energy processing] (Conversion), Electricity generation, Solar energy, Solar thermal, Combined heat and power generation, Heat distribution, Industry and Manufacturing, Wind power, Photovoltaics, Wave power