Filenews 29 August 2022
With inflated electricity prices hitting households and businesses, installing photovoltaic systems is a solution that seems attractive to more and more consumers. This is also shown by the latest data of the competent Ministry that show increased demand.
The support of households and especially the vulnerable from the effects of the crisis seems to be one of the main goals of the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry, through the programs it has announced with an increased budget and "huge interest" as pointed out. At the same time, the programs aim to promote Renewable Energy Sources (RES), so that Cyprus can meet the ambitious energy targets set by the EU.
However, experts say that the inclusion of photovoltaics in the energy mix of Cyprus without combining them with other technologies that stabilize the system, lead to an increase in the price of kilowatt-hour, while in the end they do not achieve the goals of green growth.
What the Ministry's data show
According to data from the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry, until 26/8/2022, the Ministry received 3,433 applications for the installation of photovoltaic systems. This number corresponded to almost as many applications as the Ministry had for the whole of 2021. Of these, 1231 applications are from vulnerable households.
At the same time, for roof thermal insulation, the Ministry received until 26/8/2022 90 applications and for a combination of thermal insulation / photovoltaics there is also increased interest with 32 applications to date.
For the installation / replacement of photovoltaics in 2022, the Ministry allocates three times the budget (€950,000 budget) and accepted 1615 applications, while in 2021 there were 1000 applications.
Applications for the installation of a photovoltaic system for charging electric vehicles with a budget of €1 million, which also promotes energy storage, also began.
Based on the latest available data there are almost 27 thousand installed net-metering photovoltaic systems with a total capacity of 118 MW.
"The percentage of penetration in all installed RES is not insignificant, if one considers that their total installed capacity currently exceeds 20% and is considered one of the largest percentages of distributed production in Europe in proportion to the population," the Director General of the Ministry of Energy Marios Panayidis told CNA.
He added that the Ministry's aim is to take advantage of the favourable circumstances created through the crisis to promote energy saving, photovoltaics and energy storage.
"In relation to energy storage, two projects with a total cost of €80 million are under creation. The main objective of these plans is to promote storage technologies, to reduce the cost of electricity by creating a new tender and at the same time to reduce energy cuts from RES for all producers", he noted.
He also pointed out that for two years now, the Ministry has been working intensively to implement new sponsorship schemes, which will allow the implementation of the new targets for 2030.
"At this stage we are in the process of revising these targets for 2030, in the context of the new ambitious targets set by the European Commission (Fit for 55), with technical assistance that we have received from the Support Mechanism of the European Commission," Panayides said.
He added that in 2022 a sponsorship plan of €35 million will be re-announced. for energy upgrade of residences that includes, among other things, the installation of photovoltaic systems for homes. This plan, which was also announced in 2021, also provides for the installation of energy storage systems by households.
At the same time, two more sponsorship projects are underway, one for the energy upgrade of businesses and NGOs amounting to €40 million. and the second for the energy upgrade of local authorities amounting to €9 million.
The Ministry, he said, emphasizes on providing incentives to households and businesses to encourage private initiative for the investments that need to be made towards a green and circular economy, but also for the promotion of energy efficiency and RES projects in the public and wider public sector.
At the same time and due to the energy crisis, an effort is being made to accelerate the implementation of the strategy in order to support households and businesses to reduce electricity and energy costs with a significant increase in funding from the Ministry.
In particular, the sponsorships for the Project for the installation of photovoltaics and thermal insulation of roofs in residences, which in recent years has provided annual grants amounting to €8 million. they have quadrupled. On 22/8/2022, the Council of Ministers approved the increase of the budget of the Fund and RES to €70 million for the years 2022-2023.
Also, the sponsorships offered by the Ministry to households are increased by 50% so that they are a serious incentive to proceed either to thermal insulation and savings or to the installation of photovoltaics and self-production of electricity.
Particular emphasis was placed on vulnerable households, for which, in addition to increased funding through sponsorship schemes, the list of beneficiaries of increased sponsorship has been expanded, which now amounts to 80 thousand. As Mr. Panayides said, it is expected that more than 20,000 households will benefit from this sponsorship scheme, a very significant number that will significantly help increase the penetration of residential photovoltaics in the country's energy mix in the coming years.
Photovoltaics to be supplemented with other technologies
The plans of the Ministry of Energy for the installation of photovoltaics for residential consumers will definitely benefit individual households but in their total their contribution to the energy mix will be small, said the Director of Technology Company Thalis Engineering Co Ltd that deals with RES technology issues Pavlos Liasidis.
At the same time, Mr. Liasidis focused on the need for the installation of photovoltaics to be combined with other technologies, so that the cost of production is really reduced and Cyprus can achieve its goals.
As he said, although the production of electricity with photovoltaics is the cheapest way to produce electricity, their inclusion in the system without being accompanied by other technologies increases the price of the average cost per kilowatt hour.
He explained that at the moment the production from photovoltaics is unstable since it depends on the radiation of the sun. It is produced less in the morning, peaks at noon and turns off in the evening, so the current it produces must be consumed at the time it is produced. The result, he added, is that there is not the desired amount of current at all hours, while there is instability also during the day. For now, he added, the way to deal with the system's instability problems is for the EAC machines to work in Vasilikos all the time.
As he explained, the production of electricity from photovoltaics may cost 4.5 cents per kilowatt hour, but the extra electricity produced by EAC to cover any problems of photovoltaics costs 20 cents and so the electricity from photovoltaics costs a total of 24.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
Mr. Liasidis said that photovoltaics will certainly be widely used for Cyprus to reach the EU's goal of climate neutrality by 2050, but these should be part of an energy mix that includes many other technologies.
"If we do not promote the other technologies that will complement photovoltaics, then the electricity instead of reducing it, which is our goal and to become green, will increase and we will not be able to become green," he added.
He spoke of the need to use other technologies such as storage batteries, solar thermal systems, electrical interconnections or pumped storage. He noted that by putting forward programs for these storage systems, the Republic of Cyprus is accelerating their entry into the market. He also noted that in this case Cyprus cannot copy the practices of other countries with different climates and geographies.
"So we must not be afraid, we must innovate and promote the technologies that we need," he said.
He added that the Ministry is aware of this and is preparing some things with a very long delay and conservatism, however. "The procedures should be speeded up and show courage," he said.
