Future of gas in Europe and what it means for Cyprus

[cyprusmax47]

Interesting article in CyprusMail, specially the part of Cyprus and its electricity costs in the near future........

https://cyprus-mail.com/2019/12/01/futu ... or-cyprus/


Cyprus

Many in Cyprus still argue that Europe needs Cyprus and East Med gas. They also argue that the EU wants to reduce its dependence on Russian gas. This flies in the face of reality and the fact that Russia is completing TurkStream 2 and Nord Stream 2, with EU acceptance, and with all gas destined for Europe. Given the new Green Deal policies, EU’s capacity to take more gas as we approach 2030, and beyond, will be declining fast. Cyprus will have to look elsewhere, to Asian markets, to export its gas. But this is a highly competitive market and challenging to penetrate. Prices there are low and will stay low.

The new EC is making climate action its top priority and Cyprus will be expected to tow the line. Indications so far are alarming. Without significant new measures,

Cyprus’ government admits that it will achieve a maximum of 14 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 compared to the 24 per cent target imposed by the EC. And that’s after the import of LNG, which, in any case, was never going to be enough to help Cyprus achieve its 2030 climate change goals. Only the wider adoption of renewable energy can do that.

As a result, Cyprus is expected to incur costs through the purchase of additional greenhouse gas emission allowances. According to estimates, under existing measures the annual cost could be as much as €157m to 2030.!!!!!

Electricity

The outcome will be that electricity prices are likely to increase further. What most Cypriot households know, and suffer from, was confirmed by Eurostat earlier this month. During the first half of 2019 Cyprus was in the unenviable position to have the 7th highest household electricity prices among 42 countries in Europe, with an average charge of €0.22 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Of even more concern is the fact that among these seven countries, Cyprus has one of the lowest GDP per capita – in other words it can afford such high prices the least. The price in Greece is 23 per cent lower and in Malta a whopping 41 per cent less.

The news is even more worrying for industry and non-household consumers. Cyprus has the second highest electricity charges in Europe, at just over €0.16/kWh, higher than even Germany and the UK. Greece’s price is 35 per cent lower. No wonder our industry is so uncompetitive.

Far from bringing electricity prices down, the planned import of LNG by DEFA is likely to have the opposite effect, while at the same time not resolving the problem of EU penalties due to high carbon emissions.

A more effective choice would be to accept Energean’s cheaper offer to bring gas by pipeline and through wider adoption of renewables combined with storage.

Cyprus is also doing badly in terms of achieving UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are linked with the Paris Agreement and encompass economic prosperity, social inclusion and environmental sustainability. The new Commission has pledged to place achieving the SDGs at the centre of EU policies to 2030. A report issued this week places Cyprus at the bottom of the EU-28 member-states, doing especially badly in terms of climate action. We have a long way to go. Cyprus must make it a priority to do a lot better.

n Dr Charles Ellinas (@CharlesEllinas) is a senior fellow at Global Energy Centre, Atlantic Council


Max

[Varky]

Sounds like gross incompetence to me.

[Devil]

Sounds like gross incompetence to me.

As has been known for donkey's years

[cyprusmax47]

Again, a good reason to start considering the installation of a own photo-voltaic system, while electricity prices are rising much more in the near future, it won't affect you anymore.
A 2-monthly electricity bill of ca 28 Euro after installed a 3 kWp system is easy to realise and the guarantees for that are 15 years for electronic parts and 25+ years for the panels....

Max

[Devil]

Yes, Max. Unfortunately, the grid here is unsuitable to profit very much from rooftop systems, with a plethora of tiny transformers on poles serving fewer than 20 houses (for the techies, phase and waveform errors). The overall efficiency of fed-back power is within the range of 20-70%. Where I am, only 11 houses are fed from a single transformer and all bar one is fed with single phase, which is OK for PV installations but not for the distribution of the PV generated power. Of course, the larger installations of, say, 100 kWp or more are more efficient with up to 95% efficiency of useful fed-in power, directly into the three-phase grid, assuming proper design.

The profit from the so-called RES is made by the householders with a PV system, not by the EAC or their in-built distribution network DAO and little by the environment. The EAC RES profit is made from the charges paid by consumers on their bills.

That having been said, I am very reluctantly having a 4 kWe system on our roof, awaiting approval. This decision was made for personal economic reasons and not environmental (It's called jumping on the bandwagon!).

[cyprusmax47]

Yes, Max. Unfortunately, the grid here is unsuitable to profit very much from rooftop systems, with a plethora of tiny transformers on poles serving fewer than 20 houses (for the techies, phase and waveform errors). The overall efficiency of fed-back power is within the range of 20-70%. Where I am, only 11 houses are fed from a single transformer and all bar one is fed with single phase, which is OK for PV installations but not for the distribution of the PV generated power. Of course, the larger installations of, say, 100 kWp or more are more efficient with up to 95% efficiency of useful fed-in power, directly into the three-phase grid, assuming proper design.

The profit from the so-called RES is made by the householders with a PV system, not by the EAC or their in-built distribution network DAO and little by the environment. The EAC RES profit is made from the charges paid by consumers on their bills.

That having been said, I am very reluctantly having a 4 kWe system on our roof, awaiting approval. This decision was made for personal economic reasons and not environmental (It's called jumping on the bandwagon!).

You make me lough, Devil, on countless posts you was against photo-voltaic for various reasons and now I read that you are going to install right now a 4 kWp system. Anyhow welcome to the "club", it is never too late to jump on the bandwagon.

December and January are the worst month concerning e-production, specially when the modules are immovable on the roof, so don't be disappointed in the beginning.

My own system, 20 kWp, mentioned at this poster from Nova, Limassol (went bust 2010) showed Jan-March results which were much better than expected, when comparing with the official EU simulation program.



But must admit that the tilt of my installation one can adjust from 0 degree(June/July) to 70 (Dec/Jan setting) which was not mentioned on this promotional leaflet...

Max

[Devil]

I'm still against domestic PV in this country, I'm a hypocrite. I don't believe that it is environmentally viable as rooftop systems here. I'm doing it because I have a few €€€ available and, being in an all-electric house with many appliances, except CH, am fed up paying through the nose to the EAC. I realise that the subsidies are the only reason to make it viable for me. €€€

Tilting is interesting. My water heaters have been at ~65° for 9 years and this has raised a number of questions from neighbours. How many times have I had to explain it, when their water panels are at ~15° - 20°, but they are not convinced! Viva the hot shower in winter! Variable tilting here would not be very practical as we have three levels of S.-facing sloping roof with tricky access and it would be horrendously costly to make it automatic.

[jeba]

Where I´m from there is photovoltac installation mounted on a revolvable basis which follows the sun, driven by an old church-clockwork. I wonder why that´s not standard everywhere (ok, doesn´t have to be church-clockwork).

[Jimgward]

I posted on here, a solar installation that opens like a flower and closes at night and under windy conditions, automatically, it looks like a 5m diameter daisy!

[Jimgward]

https://smartflower.com/residential

2D2B1672-F2DF-46A3-9573-F27CA6F1F6EA.jpeg (150.8 KiB) Viewed 2545 times

[cyprusmax47]

I posted on here, a solar installation that opens like a flower and closes at night and under windy conditions, automatically, it looks like a 5m diameter daisy!

https://smartflower.com/residential

2D2B1672-F2DF-46A3-9573-F27CA6F1F6EA.jpeg

The problem with movable PV installations is that they are much more expensive than standard ones AND as they move, there is wear and tear while with fixed systems this is not the case. Further, as one can see in many cases, there are faults within the controllers to turn the construction into the exact position to the sun. If you want to do that manual, than you need always 2 people to do that and this costs again maintenance fees etc ....

Max

[Jim B]

My last job before retiring was in Egypt on a new gas plant and refurbishing an existing one. There have been massive gas finds off the Egyptian coast, enough to take up the spare capacity of the existing plants at Itkut, outside Alexandria. There was talk of has from the Cypriot fields being pumped to Itkut to be treated which would be much cheaper than building pipelines and processing plants in Cyprus.

Jim

[cyprusmax47]

I'm still against domestic PV in this country, I'm a hypocrite. I don't believe that it is environmentally viable as rooftop systems here. I'm doing it because I have a few €€€ available and, being in an all-electric house with many appliances, except CH, am fed up paying through the nose to the EAC.

The thing is that a PV net-metering on your own house not only reduces your electricity bills it also helps the environment. All the time you use up the electricity at the moment you produce it from the sun, your meter will run much slower and you don't import too much power from EAC, which is still produced with heavy diesel. In this case it does not matter how good or bad the transformers from EAC are...

Max