Rights to the sun secured by Spain

Share

Ángeles Durán has been recognized as the official owner of the sun since the start of this week. “It is no joke, I have legally secured it,” she told the Financial Times Deutschland. “I am not silly and I know very well my rights.”

Durán assigned a notary two months ago, whose aim was to find out if someone else already owned the sun: he determined that no one did. Consequently, she paid €30 for the ownership deeds and notarial acknowledgement. This is reportedly possible, because during the formation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the UN decided that no state may assert a valid territorial claim over the utilization of space. However, industrial enterprises and private persons were not mentioned.

As a result, Durán wants to capitalize on her patent. “I don’t want to charge normal citizens for using the sun,” she said. Rather it involves the companies who profit from it. Accordingly, she says that in the future, companies should pay for usage of the sun’s energy.

Those thinking Durán is looking for a payout are mistaken she said, while she only intends to keep 10 percent of the income for herself. With half, the Spanish Government should restructure its budget, while 20 percent should go towards the country’s pension plans. The last 20 percent, she said, should be split into equal parts, and spent on research and fighting world hunger.

Legal experts in Germany have said there is nothing to worry about however. “Possession means that one has a secure ownership over something, which in this case is impossible,” commented Jürgen Möthrath, president of the federation of German criminal lawyers.

Popular content

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Share

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.