New Law on Solar Panels
Waiting lists for solar panels due to the rising demand for sustainable energy
The law demands that all new buildings after 2007 must have solar panels installed
Distributors say that demand has doubled and that most new clients are young people.
The sunshine most of us have come to the Costa del Sol to enjoy is fast becoming a major source of energy. Black solar panels can already be seen on rooftops all over the province of Malaga, in large towns and cities and in small villages, and as a result of a new solar energy law soon to come into force, many more of them will be seen in the future. They can be installed on open terraces or any other part of a house, and will function to perfection as long as they are facing south.
Solar energy has a great future in Spain. The Council of Ministers approved a new Technical Building Code last March, making the installation of solar panels on new buildings after 2007 obligatory. The aim is to conserve energy, mainly by heating domestic water supplies, although in many municipalities in the province of Malaga, such measures have already been taken.
The reason for such interest in solar energy these days is largely due to the rising price of traditional energy sources such as electricity, oil and gas, given that the heating of water is one of the principal costs in any household, especially in a region where showers are frequently taken more than once a day. Demand for the installation of solar panels is such that there is now a waiting list, with new requests for installations taking an average of a month to comply with.
Ramon Alvarez, an industrial engineer in Novasol, one of the companies approved by the Junta de Andalucia, confims that the number of solar panel units it has installed over the past year has doubled. The company is currently installing 1.000 units in the year, but is expected to install 2,000 a year after 2007. "We have had a huge increase in requests for information on solar energy, especially from building companies and architects' studios. There is also a great deal of interchange of information, techniques, budgets and systems," he says. But most of the company's clients are still individual home owners, he adds.
Among the biggest incentives to save energy are the grants offered by the Junta, through its Prosol programme, which cover 35 per cent of the total costs involved. The only problem is that the installation companies have to discount this amount from their costs, and then have to wait for up to three years to get their money back from the regional government. "The paperwork can take forever, and the government is always late in paying. The companies themselves have to bear the cost of these delays," says Jesus Valenzuela.
Full story from SUR in English
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