Spain and Renewables: Spain under-took a massive effort to
embrace renewable energy technologies. Per Bloomberg: The
country generated 23 percent of its electricity from renewable
sources in 2010... wind power in April covered 25 percent of
electricity demand, a record that saved 270 million euros in
fossil fuel imports. At one point on April 19, wind covered 61
percent of power demand.How did Spain become a pioneer in wind
and solar? Simple. Massive tax breaks for these sorts of
installations. In the 2000s, Spain copied the German clean-power
aid model, as did nations from Portugal to Israel and Japan,
increasing subsidies to a pinnacle in 2007. That’s when a law
granted 444 euros ($556) a megawatt-hour for home rooftop solar
panels feeding the power grid, compared with an average 39 euros
paid to competing coal- or gas-fired power plants. By 2009, the
consumer bill for clean-energy aid had risen to 6 billion euros
a year, ahead of the 5.6 billion euros in Germany, whose economy
is almost four times bigger,