MADRID – In a country with plentiful sunshine and soaring electricity bills, fitting solar panels seemed an obvious move for a British pensioner living in southern Spain.
Norma Doody, who lives with her partner near Seville, said that after switching their three-bedroom home to solar energy they have seen a dramatic change in their fortunes.
Ms Doody, 72, and William West, were spending about €300 (£260) per month on their electricity bills but this has fallen to between €15-€17 (£13-£15).
The former magnet factory worker and her partner, who moved from Worksop in Nottinghamshire to the town of Aguadulce nine years ago, spent €10,000 (£8,700) on eight panels and a battery last year.
The couple are part of a wave of Britons who have invested in solar panels as the country’s government backs renewable energy.
The couple, pictured at their home near Seville in southern Spain, have cut their electricity bill by installing eight solar panels (Photo: Norma Doody)
“The price of energy has gone up tremendously here in Spain and we get sun about 300 days a year but have enough light to produce solar energy on 360. After getting panels and a battery fitted, we have seen a big saving,” Ms Doody told i.
“It is quite an outlay to get panels, but we cover our costs and we end up selling some power back to the grid.”
In 2018, Spain’s left-wing coalition abolished the so-called “sun tax” brought in by an earlier conservative government. The tax charged solar panel owners for connecting to the grid and selling their excess power. It meant few invested in solar energy and prompted criticism for stifling investment.
The government has made it easier for investors to back large solar and wind projects. More than 180 large installations have been approved since last year, but this has prompted protests from local people against vast solar parks in their backyards.
Ms Doody, a 72-year-old magnet factory worker, has taken advantage of Spain’s solar power boom (Photo: Norma Doody)
Ms Doody said her son David Poole, who lives in Telford in Shropshire, put 14 solar panels and three batteries on his house at a cost of £13,000. His monthly electricity bill has fallen from about £200 to £35.
Sunhero, a company that fits solar panels and batteries in Spain, said 15 per cent of all its customers are British, the largest proportion of its foreign clients.
Chris Cederskog, CEO and founder of Sunhero, said British people were attracted to buying solar panels because they were aware of it from living in the UK. He said Britons also tended to buy entire homes rather than flats, making it easier to install panels.
“It makes economic sense to use solar as it has become so cheap and affordable. Secondly, then there is a tipping point when you see all your neighbours doing that,” he told i.
“You have a generation of British people who saw solar years ago and electricity in Spain is relatively expensive. There is a lot of sun and that may be one of the reasons they came to Spain in the first place.”
About 75 per cent of freestanding homes in Europe may be able to use rooftop solar panels to meet all their energy needs with solar panels and batteries by 2050, according to new research from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.
Most families are likely to remain connected to the grid and sell their excess energy back to the grid, said the study published in scientific journal Joule.
