The socialist government ruins Spain’s photovoltaic industry

2008 was a record year for PV solar industry in Spain as far as installed power, new employments and investments are concerned. 2009 will be evoked as a spectacularly negative year for the same business. In the first six months of 2009, 28.000 people have already lost their job and not as a consequence of the world economic crisis.

The source of this pessimistic year rests in a law made by the socialist government in 2008: namely RD 1578/2008. RD 1578/2008 substitutes RD 661/2007 that had just been put into force the preceding year by the same administration. The new law changes the following:

* Introduction of a yearly allocation for installed power
* Average FIT (Feed-In Tariff) reduced from .47€/kWh to .29€/kWh.

The result has been a rush by the industry to install and sell as much as possible before its implementation. Between January and September 2008 2,700 MW were mounted in Spain, an increment of 385% over 2007. Spain became the country with the largest PV park set up. The picture looks from top to bottom singular for 2009. A mere 200 or 250 MW will be installed. The industry will loose one third of its 42,000 direct jobs. The entire funding descend from 16,000 million € to 1,600 million €.

Zapatero’s government, once more, demonstrated shortage of foresight and  weedy planning. They produced a speculative drift by tendering kind Feed-In Tariffs, only to reduce them purely one year later; hence, turning into unsuccessful any investment made by operators in the industry. This includes stockpiles, engaging and teaching, as well as company development and conception. The FIT established in RD 661 did not keep in mind the expenditure for energy and contributed to the broad insufficiency of the energy industry. And the new FIT lauched in RD 1578 is excessively old-fashioned and has brought about a disaster in the industry.

The rate of production of PV energy keeps becoming lower and lower due to advances in technology. This is above all correct with concentrated photovoltaics that lessen noticeably the quantity of silicon crystals required. It appears likely that in less than two to three years the PV installed in Spain during 2008 may appear out of date and expensive.