Got a couple of Catalan lads (78 and 80 respectively) who can get them over Pyrenees from France for you. They did British airmen during the war (anything to stick it to the Spanish !).

Unfortunately the submarine service to Gibraltar has been discontinued, so you will have to pick them up yourself. Batteries I mean, not airmen.

Gonna cost.

Go to a golf shop and buy some replacements for your buggy

A friend who is completely off grid about 15 km up river well in the campo he bought second hand submarine batteries don't know if it was Spanish or British navel but they are definitely available but how would they know if you had a small sub tied up alongside or not!

Better off with the reactor from a nuke

Bit heavy and would cost a fair lump more!

Could always buy a cheap second hand one from the Ruskies,......... bet they'd be happy to deliver as well.

Just sail up the Guadiana and get your mate to plug in with an extension cable.

It would also warm the river up downstream with all sorts of possibilities from tropical fish to tropical river resorts.

I've been looking round the internet and have come up with this article which goes a long way to explain the Spanish Governments apparent lunacy over solar power. It's two or three years old but the principle remains the same. I'll try to summarise the main points. It's a Bloomberg report so the currency's in dollars.

1. "Power from the most-efficient photovoltaic plants costs utilities about $275 per megawatt-hour to produce compared with about $60 for a coal-fired plant".

2. To get the Spanish solar industry up and running the Spanish Government offered solar energy producers 44 cents per kilowatt hour compared to the industry 4 cents per KH. This price was to be guaranteed for 25 years.

3. At these prices everyone and their grannies piled into solar power generation including the main power generators.

4. Spain was quickly saddled with $126 billion worth of obligations for solar subsidies and this was growing all the time.

5. The government had to cut the subsidies because it had too much uneconomic solar power generation and was/is costing the Government a fortune. Especially in the Crisis.

6. They are now trying to discourage new installations by making it uneconomic to run if you can't store the power in a battery, and moving people back towards the much cheaper grid power (my interpretation). Without Government subsidies it's going to take you 25 years to get your solar investment back.

7. Far from being in bed with the government, the producers are up in arms because they have been saddled with a hell of a lot of uneconomic kit.



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-1...s-founder.html

Interesting.

I wonder how much power from wind turbines costs per megawatt in comparison ?
They were springing up like mushrooms all over Spain for about ten years or so but seem to have almost stopped the last couple of years.

Have they just ran out of funding or have they enough and need to balance them up with other power sources ?

Solar energy and wind energy are free energy sources.
However there are costs in harnessing and distributing that power.
To the self sufficient home owner the costs are in harnessing,saving distribution and profit compared to purchasing from a commercial producer.

Its not just Spain, right across Europe the subsidies for solar generation have been reduced or withdrawn.
In Portugal sales of electricity back to the grid are seen as income and over a certain level are taxed.
Part of the issue is that countries still need a huge conventional generation capacity for the simple reason that the sun does not shine for 24 hours or for 365 days a year. These still have to be paid for
Just think of this winter in the UK , just how much went back into the grid from the tens of thousands who were sold photo voltaic systems ??

I think you have hit the nail on the head here. It's "the unreasonable influence of mega companies" you speak of that has done all the damage and is continuing to do all the damage to society at the moment. If this rule is true Everyone who is currently off grid must stand up to their rights to remain off grid and not allow their human rights to be eroded any more! I for one would do so if I were lucky enough to be off grid which is my ultimate aim if I am ever able to afford it!

Have they thought of blocking self generated power from being shared out between neighbours!

It shouldn't take subsidies to make it a worthwhile investment. The fact is, the cost of using fossil fuels is still much cheaper than using wind or solar.

The problem I have with the entire policy is that again, well-intentioned-but-not-well-thought-through regulation ends up serving to discourage competition whilst penalising the population.

If they really wanted to make the energy companies more efficient (by making them compete for their income, and inevitably reduce the cost to the population), and make solar or other alternative forms of energy production more viable, then I think most would agree that penalising it isn't the most rational strategy.

Encourage it, instead of penalising it. That doesn't mean they have to subsidise it. But taxing cheap solar panels to death, discouraging consumers from generating their own energy, by prohibiting the use of batteries or other critical components only gives more control to the already inefficient, yet highly profitable energy companies. Regardless of what may or may not be intended, this is the actual result.

Was talking to a local about this and it seems there may be a bit of a misunderstanding. It's not going to be illegal to store enough power for private people's needs in batteries. It's something to do with businesses who were supplying at a high price. There's going to be/is a limit to how much the gov't will pay for feed in at the higher price which is over 40 cents a unit. Clearly several times the price it charges the customer per unit. And it SEEMS the battery thing is about companies trying to roll over oversupply to the next month to get the higher price again. But I don't get the whole story yet.