Spaniards Rebel Against New Solar Taxes

Instituted by decree, and huge fines for those who don't pay

Two weeks after Spain's government slapped a series of levies on green energy, Inaki Alonso hired two workmen to remove the solar panels he had put on his roof only six months earlier.

Alonso, an architect who specializes in ecological projects, calculated the cost of generating his own power under a new energy law and decided the numbers no longer added up.

Neither was it possible to leave the panels on his Madrid home without connecting them to the electricity grid; that would have risked an astronomical fine of between 6 million and 30 million euros ($8 million-$40 million).

"The new law makes it unviable to produce my own clean energy," Alonso said.

(Hat tip to Nick Sibilla)