Spain's solar fraud

摘要

The reputation of Spain's solar Industry, now the third largest in the world by installed generating capacity after the US and Germany, has been further tarnished by new evidence of fraud. Between November 2009 and January 2010 Spain's national regulator Comision Nacional de Energia said it detected 6 GWh of solar power generated during the dark winter hours of 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. The anomaly lends credence to long-running concerns that some photovoltaic plant operators have used diesel generators to produce power at solar plant sites to receive the PV feed-in tariff. The suspected fraud would amount to about €2 million ($2.7 million) in the November to January period alone, although suspicions go back more than a year. Spanish Energy Secretary Pedro Marin has called on CNE to investigate the charges. The request became public after falling into the hands of national daily newspaper El Mundo.