No, I’m not kidding. Truly, idiocy has no bounds.
In Spain, they appear to have actually done this, with fines up to 30 million Euros for non compliance.
The stupid, it sunburns. Air will be next. Breath tax.
From MISH’S Global Economic Trend Analysis:
link to Google translated article: El Pais, Spain Privatizes The Sun
If you get caught collecting photons of sunlight for your own use, you can be fined as much as 30 million euros.
If you were thinking the best energy option was to buy some solar panels that were down 80% in price, you can forget about it.
…
“The Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF), which brings together some 300 companies representing 85% of the industry, ensures that, implemented these changes, it would be more expensive solar consumption resorting to conventional supply. “It prevents the savings to consumers and paralyzes the entry of new competition in the electricity market,” contemplate. ”
Source: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/07/spain-levies-consumption-tax-on-sunlight.html
h/t to OSSqss
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The source linked above in turn sources a newspaper in Costa Rica.
http://elpais.cr/frontend/noticia_detalle/6/83700
which in turn sources what seems to be a Communist blog
http://kaosenlared.net/
which seems not to have any article about this topic.
This is just at first glance, so I may be wrong, but I will not give this any weight until I see a legitimate Spanish source.
BTW, this goes against Spanish policy so far, according to Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Spain
Sailboat fuel seems like it could be next…
As a citizen of the EU I would remind everyone that, like Michael Mann, I have a Nobel prize. This one for peace
Therefore this automatically means I am jolly clever and by extension so are the Spanish. So a bit more respect please from jealous non eu citizens.
Tonyb
Can’t think of anything more sensible in much of Spain than loading houses with solar panels. They have guaranteed sunshine for quite a few months a year, so the summer months most of the country’s domestic consumption could be covered by this.
rtj1211 says:
July 26, 2013 at 12:00 pm
Can’t think of anything more sensible in much of Spain than loading houses with solar panels. They have guaranteed sunshine for quite a few months a year, so the summer months most of the country’s domestic consumption could be covered by this.
I would hardly say “most” but certainly a small but significant percentage of it.
As for the main article: what should we expect? This is Spain, after all. Politically, hasn’t Spain always been even more backward than France? Hardly bastions of freedom by Western standards.
If you can read Spanish, do a search for
“propuesta de Real Decreto para el autoconsumo eléctrico”
or
“La Unión Española Fotovoltaica”
And this is to be done by a supposed conservative liberal administration. The big problem in Spain is that we have slipped by a spiral of subsidizing renewables to reach a point where no one knows how it will pay the bill (an accumulated deficit of about 40 billions of dollars), so they need to tax everything, at least all they can imagine… the ridiculousness of the each particular tax is not a parameter to take into account.
You can find a short resume of the descent into hell in this article (I summarize here a conference on the subject organized by the Libertarian Party) :
http://tiny.cc/SpanishEnergySystem (Google translated)
Daniel Rodríguez Herrera says:
July 26, 2013 at 11:41 am
“Yes, this is crazy, but it’s only a small step when you already have a socialist energy system.”
Thanks! Fantastic analysis! Yes, same opinion here from Germany. The distortions by solar and wind get more excessive, not only does our FIT fee per kWh rise from year to year but now we also pay into a slush fund that is meant to compensate offshore wind owners who can’t be connected.
As with the EU ETS, one disturbance caused by central planners begets more disturbances. Inefficiencies, theft and total cost mount while the performance of the system deteriorates.
Two possibilities: Continue meddling back and forth til the EU collapses, or at some time let the free market forces heal it.
Given that continental European populations largely hold the free market in disdain (due to brainwashing by state media), I am not optimistic.
Does that also apply to trees and wood for burning in your homes?
Mostly sunlight created and sun energy?
Well, IMHO, I would postulate that eventually the only human condition that will remain essentially free would be to put your head between your legs and kiss your arse goodbye.
Uh, so will farms (food, not solar), as consumers of sunlight for photosynthesis, also be subject to a tax? Never mind, don’t want to give them ideas.
Yet more eveidence that we the people are the servants of the politicians, and not the reverse. This is especially true of the EU which of course sets all energy policy for those countries which belong,a nd which is not a democracy.
How this tax on solar power sits with the EU’s demands that each country reduces CO2 generation by some ridiculous percentage within an even more impossible timeframe, remains to be explained. It seems particularly harsh on those many Spaniards and expats who live out in the campo and have only solar power or an emergency generator, and have invested in their own power systems of necessity .
I’d like to think that such obvious, rank stupidity would be the final nail in the coffin. If rationality was brought to bear, it would be. However I fear we have a lot further to sink yet. The idiots have locked themselves into the ammunition magazine and are trying to blow us all to kingdom come.
Uh, don’t we produce CO2 when we breathe?
I mean, taxing CO2 is already a tax on breathing.
Does anyone still wonder why Spain’s economy is a mess?
I always thought a tax was supposed to be a way for governments to finance services they provide. So does the Spanish government provide sunlight now?
And don’t forget that Spain leads the world in collecting solar energy at night. I kid you not.
Solar panel ‘farmers’ find it pays to buy a diesel generator and a bank of floodlights and illuminate their panels and sell the ‘solar’ electricity.
Romania has a tax on wind, too. I expect they’ll copy Spain at that Sun tax, too. I predicted it a long time ago.
These aren’t the first taxing times.
http://ticktocktony.com/Antique-Clock-History/tavern-clock-history.html
@Joe Kirklin Public says: July 26, 2013 at 10:43 am
Its precursor in England was the notorious Window Tax.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax
======================================
You will still see houses in places such as Bath with the windows blocked up as a result of said tax. Taxing sunlight sounds like something from Gulliver’s Travels.
Ignore – following comments
TonyG says:
July 26, 2013 at 1:53 pm
“Ignore – following comments”
Is that a magic incantation that binds the NSA and Google?
DirkH says:
Is that a magic incantation that binds the NSA and Google?
It would have, until you invoked them by name 🙁
CodeTech says:
July 26, 2013 at 1:16 pm
“I always thought a tax was supposed to be a way for governments to finance services they provide. So does the Spanish government provide sunlight now?”
No, but the French. They have a sun king. Louis XIV.
Sam the First says:
July 26, 2013 at 12:41 pm
“How this tax on solar power sits with the EU’s demands that each country reduces CO2 generation by some ridiculous percentage within an even more impossible timeframe, remains to be explained.”
The EU commission with the rest of the Eurocracy enters the vortex of dysfunction where the last cry heard will be Help Us Angela. Expect the EU state media to run overtime to paper over the cracks.
Daniel Rodríguez Herrera says:
July 26, 2013 at 11:41 am
… This tax is part of a bigger reform because Spain has a deficit of billions of euros every year with electric companies, mainly because of the massive solar and wind energy grants. We spaniards pay more for electricity than other europeans, but still pay a lot less than they cost because of the financial incentives to green energies.
…….
Yes, this is crazy, but it’s only a small step when you already have a socialist energy system.
Thanks Daniel this helps to understand!