Spain Looks to Once Again go All Out on Solar Power

Spain Looks to Once Again go All Out on Solar Power 

Solar power is becoming popular again, thanks to a change in policy

Nothing boosts the economy in Spain quite like the sunshine that goes strong for upwards of 320 days out of the year. Whether it’s the tourists looking for fun in the sun or the olive groves, the sunny climate of Spain make it a top holiday destination, one of the leading producers of wine, olives, fruits, and vegetables, and even a stunning backdrop for major Hollywood blockbusters and TV programs like Game of Thrones. 

There is one thing that the sunshine hasn’t delivered for a while though, and that’s reliable solar power. Spain became a world leader for solar power between 2008 and 2010, with sweeping transformations that turned practically the whole country into a vast solar farm pumping free and clean energy straight to the Spanish power grid. 

It was a matter of time before homeowners wanted to get in on the action, and the government supported it at first by offering homeowners who installed solar panels some generous rates; essentially paying for people to generate their own solar power and feed it into the grid. 

But the solar boom of Spain, much like the property boom, grew at too rapid a pace. The government quickly came to realise that their generosity could have damaging repercussions. As more people switched to solar power, the government ran out of money to support their solar policy. The new government of 2012 started looking at ways to take back some of the money that had been spent on solar power, and introduced a controversial “sun tax”; charging people for exporting their excess power back to the grid. 

The future of solar power in Spain went from bright to overcast in a single move. Things stayed like this until recently this year when the government – perhaps feeling bolder after securing a second term and boosting the economy – decided to auction renewable energy. The premise of these auctions would be supporting renewable energy projects based on the best offers made by companies when possible. 

Wind power was the initial winner of these schemes, but the latest government-backed auction from this week saw solar power win pretty big and win the right to develop 3.5 gigawatts (GW) of brand new solar projects. This equates to around two-thirds of the current installed capacity, and the projects should be finished by 2020. 

There are plenty of benefits to this including helping Spainto meet carbon emission reduction targets, improving air quality and reducingpollution, and lowering the energy bills of consumers.

Spain Once Again Top Spot for Property in the World

Spain Once Again Top Spot for Property in the World

Property in the costa del sol continues t be a great buy

There are a range of surveys and polls out there claiming they accurate rank the most potent global property market. Even so, ranking foreign demand for the property of a certain country is little more than playing a guessing game.

An example of this is that Brits choose Spain ahead of other countries when they buy property abroad, but American buyers will choose to buy a summer getaway in Mexico. This represents just two groups of buyers and doesn’t even take into account the share size of the world.

Even so, recent rankings from TheMoveChannel.com aim to give some form of structure and accuracy to these rankings. The portal has become to the largest site in the world for viewing property, and the Top of the Props index released by the website has become a trusted source among economists and analysts alike.

This is why headlines were made back in February when it was revealed Spain had lost its top spot to the USA. USA property became the hot trend at earlier in the year, accounting for 14.02% of global enquiries.

The April index shows that Spain has reclaimed the top spot once again, as Spanish property now accounts for one in ten search enquiries across the months of March and April. Also impressive is that locations in Spain accounted for 30 of the top 50 searched locations on the site.

This is hardly surprising, given that the Spanish property market picks up steam during the Spring. Foreign buyers have also had a long love affair with Spanish property; a love affair that the data from the Spanish Registrars latest annual report would suggest is continuing.

The report, which was also published just last week, shows 13.25% of the Spanish properties sold during the first quarter of 2017 went to foreign buyers.

There are very few people in the market that are surprised by the news that Spain remains an attraction to overseas buyers looking for property. Those who have always been confident in the appeal Spanish property has to British buyers are taking the fact that Brexit has done little to damage British demand as a chance to rub it in people’s faces and say they told us so.

Spain Once Again Proves to be Most Popular Destination for Irish Tourists

Spain Once Again Proves to be Most Popular Destination for Irish Tourists

Its no wonder Spain continues to be the best

destination in the world.

There’s an old – and bad – joke that says a holiday isn’t a holiday when the Irish go on holiday to the UK. It is somewhat accurate however. The data from the Central Statistics Office in Ireland showed that the UK was the most popular destination for the Irish last year, with around 2.4 million trips between the two countries.

Most of these trips could be considered to be related to work or family though, and aren’t necessarily holidays. This is the line that the CSO is giving at least, and we’re going to agree with them given that the data also shows 1.5 million of the 7.6 million trips the Irish took abroad last year were to Spain.

If one were to compare the total expenditure of Irish tourists in 2016, it becomes obvious that Spain is the most popular holiday destination and not the UK. Around €993 million was spent in the UK by the Irish across their 2.4 million trips.

On the other hand, around €1.4 billion was spent in Spain from 1.5 million trips. This shows that the Irish are definitely choosing to spend longer (and spend more) in Spain compared to the UK.

All of this data was further backed up by a recent AA poll, which surveyed 7,000 Irish people on their tourism and holiday preferences. The poll showed Spain was the most popular overseas destination for one-in-five tourists, with the USA, Portugal, France, and Italy following behind.

It’s worth noting that Spain has been the top of this particular poll for the past five years.

The excellent weather and the superb beaches and landscape of Spain has been one of the main attractions for the Irish. The most appealing factor, however, could be the affordability of the Costas.

The poll from the AA discovered many Irish under-25s are more cost-conscious as far as travel goes. The affordability and value for money Spain has makes it popular with those in the Emerald Isle.

Even though more people are going abroad for their holiday than before, it’s still obvious that holidays are treated as luxuries. Young people in particular regard them as luxuries because they are less secure financially.

Even though Spain was the ideal choice for 25% of the people polled, “staycationing” in Ireland pulled in 15% of the vote – and second place. We suspect that Ireland will stay in second place until Cork can generate as much bright sunshine as Marbella. Which isn’t likely to happen any time soon.

Spain Reining in the Russians Once Again After Lean Years

Spain Reining in the Russians Once Again After Lean Years

Russian tourism is important to Spain and many

are taking advantage of the Golden Visa system

The roubles are coming back to Spain after the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) confirmed that Russia has moved their on-off relationship with Spain back to the “on” position.

Following the boon to the Russian economy a few years ago, many of the newly-minted middle class of the country started heading further west than they usually did, moving from the Black Sea Coast to the Mediterranean.

After taking in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas they decided that Spain was the place for them, with tourism peaking in 2014 shortly before the Russian economy collapsed once again following the massive dip in oil prices.

During the next two years it became difficult for Russians to go further afield for their vacations following wage cuts and a bad exchange rate, but things could be once again on the mend.

ATOR say that some 3.3% more Russian tourists visited Spain in 2016 over 2015. While it is still over a third less than the record 883,000 tourists of 2014, it’s still representative of a nice turnaround in the economies of both Spain and Russia.

ATOR said that between January and September of 2016 Spain was the most popular travel destination for travellers from Russia.

Greece was the most popular Russian tourist destination for a brief time in 2014, with over one million Russians heading to the country during the first nine months of 2014. Russians stayed away from the country following the Greek economic crisis and now Spain has moved ahead of Turkey, Thailand and Cyprus to be number one again.

As far as expenditure for guests goes Russians have always been generous to their Spanish hosts and will spend an average of €104 per head, which is about how much your average British tourist spends.

Spanish resorts will no doubt be revelling in the roubles but there has been extra data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showing that there’s very little for Spain to worry about as far as attracting foreign visitors goes. The amount of visitors up to October was up 11% year-on year with foreigners spending almost €70 million euros during the first ten months of 2016; an increase of 16.3%. So Spain is bringing in more tourists and these tourists are spending more money.

21% of all the foreign expenditure in Spain for 2016 came from Brits, with Germans coming in second at 17.1%.

Spain Slowly Becoming Hollywood’s Favourite Backdrop Once More

Spain Slowly Becoming Hollywood’s Favourite Backdrop Once More

There was a time when Almería was the background for many US Westerns. Now it looks like Spain is becoming featured across many different genres.

Many of Hollywood's elite are visiting Spain

The 60s saw the Spaghetti Western – movies that appeared to be set in the dry and arid deserts of the American west. In reality these scenes were usually filmed in an arid desert, it’s just they were filmed in south-east Spain in Almería.

While the wagons aren’t in town anymore (though a theme park dedicated to western cinema still is) it looks like Hollywood and TV are coming back to Spain for filming.

One very famous example is Game of Thrones, the crown jewel of HBO. Some scenes from the show were filmed in Seville in Andalucía. Scenes recorded for season six were flimed in the Bardenas Reales nature reserve found in Navarra.

Major BBC show Doctor Who has even been filmed in Spain in Fuerteventura. One of the newest offerings of the BBC, Penny Dreadful, is to bring back the western heritage of Almería as many scenes were filmed in the desert there.

Spain offers filmmakers a large number of landscapes and envionments for their movies and shows. Spain has arid deserts, beaches, mountains and woodland packed into one country. The country also offers financial incentives to bring in film crews by making it cheaper for them through taxes (or lack thereof).

While these tax breaks might be better in other countries (France and Germany provide 30% and 40% tax breaks while Spain only offers 15%), Spain is cheaper in general to shoot in. This is according to the President of the Spain Film Comission (SFC) Carlos Rosado.

Mr Rosado said that the people of Spain are trained well and have a deep cultural heritage. The country itself is also easier to get around and better to spend time in. You can find yourself in snow on a mountain in the morning and be back on a tropical beach by the afternoon. Spain is a small country but offers a wide array of contrasting climates.

As the film industry continues to evolve it becomes easier and cheaper for film crews to travel as they don’t need to lug around tons of equipment and staff anymore. Spain itself also has plenty of equipment and is well supplied and able to give the film crews anything they need. They are able to provide more than just extras for scenes. Spain is also able to offer electricians to fully qualified actors.

Spain is getting a lot of benefits from this too of course. They have seen a rise in tourism and information thanks to tourist trails where fans travel to the locations scenes from their favourite shows were filmed. They have also experienced an economic boost thanks to the services, hotels, and local work being done by filmmakers.

To provide an example; around €800,000 was spent in Spain during the production for the film Exodus starring Christian Bale. Spain is also building a solid reputation among filmmakers. If they continue to please HBO then this makes Spain even more popular and brings in even more work for the local industry.