March 23, 2011
Spain

Spanish region imposes visual impact tax on turbines

Michael McGovern, Windpower Monthly, www.windpowermonthly.com 23 March 2011

SPAIN: Spain’s autonomous region of Castile-La Mancha, currently with over 3.7GW online, has voted to clamp a visual impact levy on all wind plants above 5MW.

The levy is set at 1.6% of plant generation income for existing and new capacity. The regional government’s vice president, María Luisa Araújo, expects the levy to net €15 million annually and for it to be in force before 2012.

South central Castile-La Mancha is the second region to establish such a tax. Galicia, in the north, enforced a “landscape impact” levy in 2009, currently facing a legal appeal from the regional wind association.

National wind association, Asociación Empresarial Eólica (AEE), told Windpower Monthly it is considering legal action against the Castile-La Mancha levy.

The association argues the levy unfairly discriminates against wind, while overlooking the visual impact of other industries.

For a sector already hit by reduced wind production incentives and increasing business taxation, the levy could act as a last straw, said AEE, repelling developer investment.

Araújo disagrees: “No company has expressed doubts about maintaining investments in the region.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/03/23/spanish-region-imposes-visual-impact-tax-on-turbines/