Photovoltaic Self-consumption and Net-Metering: Measures to Remove Economic Non-market Failure and Institutional Barriers that Restrict Their Use in Spain

Abstract

The countries that participated in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in the Agreement of Paris on 12 December 2015, recognized the seriousness of the global climate change problem and agreed to take measures to cope with it so that the increase in the global average temperature remains well below 2 °C with respect to pre-industrial levels (NRDC in The Paris Agreement on climate change. Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, 2015 [38]). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its Fifth Assessment Report, published in 2014, identifies the generation of electricity as one of the main causes of the increase in the global emissions of greenhouse gasses (International Panel on Climate Change in Climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2014 [27]). Furthermore, Article 45 of the Spanish Constitution recognizes “the right to enjoy an adequate environment for the development of the person and the duty to preserve it”; and imposes “a mandate on public authorities to ensure the rational use of natural resources to protect and improve the quality of life and defend and restore the environment” (Cortes Generales Españolas in The Spanish constitution. Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado, Madrid, 1978 [14]).