New figures from the EU stats office Eurostat, show that electricity bills in Spain are some of the highest in the EU, whilst renewable home energy generation is punished with higher tariffs.

Spanish households pay the fifth highest price in the EU for electricity, reveals a comparative study by Eurostat. Only Denmark, Germany, Ireland and Italy have higher prices.

Adjusted for purchasing power to reflect household incomes, Spain is the third most expensive country in the EU for electricity, behind Portugal and Germany.

Electricity prices rose 2.4% in the EU in the second half of last year, to 0.211 €/kWh on average, and by 0.1% in Spain to 0.237 €/kWh. Electricity prices have gone up 33% in the EU since 2008.

Domestic electricity prices in the EU range from 0.10 €/kWh in Bulgaria, to 0.30 €/kWh in Denmark.

Spain is also expensive for natural gas, with a cost of 0.93 €/kWh compared to a EU average of 0.71 €/kWh, behind only Sweden and Portugal. Fortunately, the climate in much of Spain means you don’t need to put the heating on very often.

With abundant sunshine you would think that Spain would be a good country for renewable energy generation at home. However, a recent report from the the International Energy Agency (IEA) reveals that Spain is the only country in the world to tax home renewable energy generation.