Repsol SA (BME:REP), a Spanish oil-and-gas company and as of 2018 an electric utility, has started offering services in the solar distributed generation segment to homes, businesses and communities in Spain wishing to switch to 100% renewable power.
The Repsol Solify service is marketed as a typical net-metering arrangement directed at homes, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large industrial sites under which each customer can get their own grid-connected self-consumption solar scheme.
The company offers to take care of the permitting procedures, registry and installation of solar panels on customers’ rooftops on a turn-key basis, according to the promotional material on Repsol website.
The Solmatch service seeks to create solar communities in urban areas and connect customers with empty rooftop space to those with no place or intention to install a rooftop array. Repsol has christened the two groups of customers Roofers and Matchers, respectively.
According to Repsol, no investment is required on the part of the Roofers, only unused roof space to hold the solar panels. Matchers who live within a 500-metre radius of a Roofer’s installation can connect to it and enjoy 100% renewable power.
Electricity that has to be drawn from the grid is certified as 100% green with a guarantee of origin, Repsol says.
The creation of solar communities in Spain was made possible by a royal decree (RD) which the Spanish government approved in April 2019. It introduced the concept of collective self-consumption to enable a community of households or businesses to install and benefit from a single power generation scheme. Such generation systems can be installed up 500 metres away from the point of consumption, which in the case of solar is convenient for people whose rooftops are shaded, for example. Before the RD came into effect, consumers in Spain were only allowed to install solar arrays on their own property.
