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first  off are you in a flat or house? , do you have an outside area you can use ?

Hi! I am in a flat, and yes with a big balcony!

Hi - does your balcony face to the south?  How to tell - when you get up in the morning is the sun to your left or right?

what are the mounthly costs?

AmandaStone wrote:

what are the mounthly costs?

Try for living costs

Hi I have always been interested in solar power and in fact I've checked out when I had a roof top terrace when living in another country years ago but had learned that it'd take 16 years to amortize so didn't do it. Here in Madrid I just got two solar bulbs from a supermarket and use them as night lights. The power from the mother nature just mesmerize me 

Are you going to stay in your place for a long time? Otherwise it's difficult to justify the initial cost. With the high electricity cost  in Spain (4th highest in Europe) amortization period could be not as long though.

When there's abundant sunshine in this country it's shocking that solar power is not encouraged with subsidies. I have asked some Spanish friends though, and was told that they actually tried to subsidize it years ago, but gave up when it upset some people's interest so they decided to sacrifice the environment for business interests. Very sad.

I've read some recent articles and it seems that they are thinking about it again. Fingers crossed..



I wonder if it is possible to place the panels on the building roof top if your terrace is not enough. Rooftops are always completely empty with no one allowed to use. It could also be more economical for the whole building to share one facility on the rooftop but it could be very difficult to convince the older neighbors as they are generally less concerned with the environment and even if they could afford it, they wouldn't want to invest if the amortization period out last their lifetime!

If you find out more, please do share here. I'd be very interested to know your experience!

Just a thought

If one is sufficiently concerned about the environment why would one be concerned that he/she personally would not see a return on the investment?

I installed a solar water heater, with an expected 10 years to break even.  I sold that property two years later. I hope the subsequent owner/s have been enjoying my investment of 20 years ago.

I installed a similar system in my new property and 18 years on it is still working fine,  saving money for me and  helping the environment.

PS. I am 80 so one of the ‘older people’ in my community !

With sustainability efforts, I wouldn't judge what is sufficient what is not. Any effort is much better than none. Most of us recycle paper, tins, drink bottles at least but how many of us give up some flying holidays to save the carbon footprint? Doesn't mean that we should stop recycling though.

The conclusion of older people care less about sustainability was drawn from talking to a few older guys including other Europeans, and the presidente de communidad of my building told me so when I enquired the possibility of installing solar panels on the rooftop. There are always exceptions like anything else.

To give advice on a forum I would try to lay out the options and info and let people decide for themselves according to their own circumstances.

Here's another piece of info