Subsidies may run short for Spain's solar parks. Credit: P. GINTER/SCIENCE FACTION/GETTY IMAGES

Many of the solar parks that stretch across the Spanish countryside are guilty of fraud, Spain's National Energy Commission (CNE) has found.

In the past two years, Spain's solar industry has grown by 900%. The country now has the third-largest solar capacity in the world, behind the United States and Germany. But the CNE's investigation has found that nearly 4,200 photovoltaic installations, found on 13% of Spain's solar parks, were falsely registered as producing power by 30 September 2008 in order to receive greater subsidies from power companies.

Industry analysts are concerned that the fraudulent installations have effectively used up the subsidies anticipated for 2009 — and on 17 December the government postponed a round of awards planned for January until 1 March.