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Checked 3 October 2026Written for owners on the Murcia and Alicante coast who do not read Spanish. It explains the steps and the Spanish terms you will meet on papers, with the source for each rule and a note where we could not confirm something.
The short version. Anyone who owns the property can have solar panels fitted. You will need a NIE, a municipal permit (a licence or a “responsible declaration”, depending on the council), and the installation has to be registered with the regional authority and notified to your electricity distributor. Each council decides its own discounts on the IBI and the ICIO, and they range from nothing to 95%. Surplus energy is credited against your bill but never paid out in cash under the simplified scheme. The national income-tax deduction is for tax residents’ main or rented homes, so most non-resident owners cannot use it.
The Ministry of the Interior describes the NIE as a personal, unique number given to foreign people who, for economic, professional, social or other reasons, relate to Spain. If you bought your home you have one. Expect the installer to ask for it to issue the invoice, and the council to ask for it with the permit.
Solar panels are fitted by the owner of the property, or with the owner’s authorisation. The IBI bonus is claimed by the person who pays the IBI. In the ordinances we read for the eight towns in this guide, none of the conditions depends on nationality or residence. Some other cities do limit the IBI bonus to a main home (our comparison of 21 cities, in Spanish, flags them, for example Córdoba and Logroño).
The permit is municipal, so it varies. In Dénia the e-office offers a responsible declaration for photovoltaic systems on the roofs of dwellings, if the building is legally built, the panels are coplanar with the roof, the system is up to 10 kW, and a technician’s memory and proof of payment of the fees and the ICIO are attached; it takes effect on submission and the council may inspect afterwards. In Torrevieja the council says the building licence and the ICIO apply to self-consumption installations. In Alhama de Murcia the ordinance speaks of a licence “or other urban-planning act”, and the discounts require one.
Ask your installer, in writing, which route your council requires for your type of roof, who submits it, and who pays the fees and the ICIO. Do not start work before the permit or declaration is in place: some ordinances deny the tax discounts for works done without a municipal title.
National law lets councils reduce the IBI by up to 50% and the ICIO by up to 95% for solar systems (the ordinances cite article 74.5 and article 103.2.b of the local-finance law). It is optional, so each council decides the percentage, the number of years, the caps and the conditions. In this guide’s towns, the IBI discount ranges from 25% to 50%, from one tax period to six years, and some towns attach unusual conditions:
| Town | IBI | ICIO |
|---|---|---|
| Torrevieja | 50% of the IBI quota for 3 years, if the system is big enough | no solar bonus in the published text |
| Orihuela | 50% of the IBI quota for homes with solar (older text; confirm) | no solar bonus in the text we read |
| Mazarrón | 25% of the IBI quota for 4 tax periods (from 2026) | 45% on the electric solar part (older consolidated text; confirm) |
| San Javier | 50% of the IBI quota, for the first tax period only | 50% on the solar part |
| Los Alcázares | 50% of the IBI quota for 3 years (council announcement) | not verified |
| Alhama de Murcia | 50% of the IBI quota, up to €200 a year, for 3 years | 90% for dwellings, 60% for farms and industry |
| Dénia | Up to 50% for 3 years, then up to 25% for 2, scaled by cadastral value | 95% on the solar part |
| l’Alfàs del Pi | 25% of the IBI quota for 6 years (council announcement) | not verified |
Three practical points: deadlines (Alhama de Murcia requires the application before 1 March of the following year; Mazarrón before the tax accrues); proof (several councils want a technician’s certificate stating the installation date or that it was not compulsory); and size (Torrevieja requires at least 5 kW per 100 m² built). A page marked in orange on our town pages relies on a council announcement or an older text rather than the current ordinance. Ordinances usually change in the autumn.
Many homes on the coast sit inside a comunidad de propietarios (a block, or an urbanisation of villas or townhouses with common areas). Three things to check:
The decree classifies installations as without surplus (an anti-export device must stop any energy reaching the grid) or with surplus (energy can be exported). Systems with surplus up to 100 kW from renewable sources can opt for the simplified compensation scheme. After the works:
Keep every certificate: the town halls above ask for them when you request the IBI bonus.
Under the simplified compensation scheme, surplus energy is valued hour by hour. With a free-market supplier it is valued at the price agreed with them. With a regulated tariff supplier it is valued at the hourly market price minus the imbalance cost. The credit is deducted from the energy you bought in the billing period, which cannot be longer than one month, and its value can never be higher than the value of that energy: the bill cannot go below the energy-term cost, so you are not paid cash for a big summer surplus. Self-consumed energy is exempt from access tolls and from system charges at the point of use, according to the decree’s articles 17 and 18, while the charges that apply to your supply point still do.
Practical consequence: size the system for what you actually use, and ask what price your supplier pays for surplus. Our calculator applies this cap, using your own prices.
National income-tax deduction (IRPF). The IRPF law (additional provision 50) gives, for works carried out up to 31 December 2026: 20% of the amounts paid if the works reduce the heating-and-cooling demand by at least 7% (annual base limit €5,000); and 40% if they cut non-renewable primary energy consumption by at least 30%, or reach energy class A or B (base limit €7,500 a year). Both are proved with an energy performance certificate issued after the works, before 1 January 2027, and both apply to the taxpayer’s main home, or another home they own that is rented out as a dwelling. A third deduction, of 60%, exists for owners of homes in residential buildings where a building-wide energy renovation reaches the same 30% or class A/B result (works up to 31 December 2027).
Can a non-resident claim it? The deduction sits in the resident income-tax law. Non-residents are taxed under the non-resident law (IRNR), which computes tax on gross income “without reductions” (article 24.1) and has no general counterpart for this deduction. The exception is the article 46 option for residents of an EU member state who earn at least 75% of their total income in Spain from employment or business, or whose income is very low. A second home that is not rented as a dwelling does not qualify even for residents. We found nothing extending it to ordinary non-residents; ask a tax adviser who knows your situation.
Grants and regional deductions change often and differ between the Region of Murcia and the Valencian Community. We keep the Spanish-language overview at Subvenciones por comunidad; check it and the regional government’s own page before you rely on one.
If you rent your home to tourists, three questions are worth asking before you sign, because we could not find an official answer for them: whether the council’s IBI bonus applies (the ordinances of Mazarrón, San Javier, Orihuela and Dénia speak of properties intended as dwellings); whether your regional tourist-rental registration or your community’s statutes say anything about the roof; and whose name the electricity contract and the self-consumption registration are in. The IRPF deduction text refers to a dwelling rented “for use as a dwelling”; whether short tourist lets count is a question for a tax adviser.
What the rules say, rather than what installers promise: the distributor has ten days to modify the access contract after receiving the communication (article 8); for systems with surplus up to 100 kW at low voltage, activation should take no more than two months from the distributor receiving the documents, and your bill carries an automatic discount if it is exceeded (article 16 bis); in Dénia a responsible declaration takes effect on submission; the IRPF energy deduction needs the post-works certificate before 1 January 2027. We do not have a sourced figure for how long the installation or the permit takes in each council: ask for a written timetable and for what happens if it slips.
In practice, yes: the NIE is the number Spain gives to foreign people with economic, professional or social interests in the country, and you should expect the installer, the council and the electricity company to ask for it. If you own property in Spain you almost certainly have one already (it is needed to buy property).
For the installation itself, we found no nationality or residence condition in the ordinances read for this guide. It does matter for tax: the IRPF energy-efficiency deduction is part of the resident income-tax law, and non-residents are taxed under a different law. Some cities, outside the towns covered here, limit their IBI bonus to a main home (for example Córdoba and Logroño).
If the panels go on common elements such as a shared roof, yes: the community decides. Under article 17.1 of the Horizontal Property Law, installing renewable-energy systems can be approved by one third of the owners who also represent one third of the ownership shares, and the community cannot charge owners who did not vote for it. For a detached villa on your own plot you normally need no community vote, but check your community’s statutes.
With the “simplified compensation” scheme (Royal Decree 244/2019, article 14), surplus energy is valued at an hourly price and subtracted from the energy you buy, but its value can never exceed the value of what you bought in that billing period, so it cannot turn your bill into income.
The deduction is in the resident income-tax law (IRPF, additional provision 50) and applies to a main home or a home rented out as a dwelling. Non-residents are taxed under the IRNR law, which computes tax on gross income without IRPF reductions, except for the article 46 option open to EU residents who earn most of their income in Spain. We found no provision extending the deduction to ordinary non-residents: confirm with a tax adviser.
It depends on the council route and on the electricity distributor. For systems with surplus up to 100 kW connected at low voltage, the rules say activation should not take more than two months from the distributor receiving the documents, and a bill discount applies automatically if it is exceeded (article 16 bis, Royal Decree 244/2019).
Each page below applies the rules above to one council’s own ordinance:
All consulted on 2–3 October 2026. This is general information, not legal or tax advice, and ordinances change.
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