A wind turbine owner in Lemvig has been ordered to pay 10,000 kroner in back electricity tax after Skattestyrelsen found his household turbine had fed more power into the grid than his tax scheme allowed. Just under 2,000 owners of private renewable installations are facing similar demands.
DR reports that Nils-Jørn Krejberg from Lemvig received the bill after a control of private owners of renewable energy installations. Skattestyrelsen carried out the control last year and concluded that almost 2,000 owners had received tax rebates that were too large.
Krejberg bought his household turbine from the manufacturer THYmøllen 14 years ago. The turbine came from the official positive list, which covers turbines assessed as meeting the technical conditions for grid connection. Under the tax scheme he joined, the turbine may have a maximum output of six kilowatts.
Per DR, Krejberg says his first thought was that the demand had to be a mistake. He puts the total overrun at a maximum of 10 kilowatt hours across three years, spread over a few minutes. He says he acted in good faith, that his turbine was approved under the law, and that the law has not changed since.
Freddy Nielsen, sales manager at THYmøllen, is as puzzled as the owners, according to DR. He explains that the six kilowatt limit can be exceeded because of shifting wind and weather. The turbines are stall regulated and brake themselves when they reach a certain speed, but that takes a few seconds.
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Political reaction
Mads Fuglede, energy and climate spokesperson for Danmarksdemokraterne, wants the tax bills scrapped and the owners returned to the settlement scheme. He calls the breaches trivial and says society should thank the owners for producing green power during an important electrification. He has put several questions to the Ministry of Taxation and Growth.
Tax Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt writes in his most recent answer that he has great understanding for the rules being experienced as unreasonable and rigid, even for small overruns. He mentions no option for changing the back payments. He does open the possibility that owners can be covered by the lenient tax schemes again if the requirements of the law are met.
Fuglede is unimpressed by the answer and plans to call the minister to a samråd, DR reports. The owners are not themselves parties to the cases, which limits their ability to appeal compared with a case where they were a party.
Krejberg says he is unsure whether his turbine blades will keep turning. With the amounts now on the table, he says it would be cheaper to buy electricity on the free market. He describes the turbine as no longer as profitable as it was at the start.
