Solar pv net metering (from Cyprus Mail)
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 1:24 pm
Cyprus is throwing away more and more renewable solar energy every year as production increases through the unprecedented proliferation of PV parks and government home schemes but with nowhere to store it.
MPs at the House energy committee heard on Tuesday that 167,000 megawatt-hours of RES were wasted in 2024. That would have powered almost 335,000 households for more than a month.
The wasted RES for 2023 was 36,700 megawatt-hours and in 2022 it was 12,700 megawatt-hours. Now we seem to be approaching levels of insanity.
People are being pushed into PV schemes they’re told will save them tons of money in electricity bills but then find themselves being cut from the antiquated grid on a more frequent basis. They then end up paying the same high rates as everybody else.
When Cyprus jumped on the net zero bandwagon, did no one ask where the extra power could be stored? Is foresight a dirty word among our policymakers?
During the heated discussion on Tuesday, the government was lambasted for “an absolute lack of policy”.
Committee Chairman and Disy MP Kyriakos Hadjiyiannis accused the state of deceiving people into investing in solar panels.
He also claimed that money from the renewable energy fund that everyone has been paying into on their electricity bills for decades, was being misused for among other things social policies instead of expanding storage capacity. That’s also aside from the hundreds of millions Cyprus pays every year for emissions.
Wider energy issues aside and the vested interests flooding the country with solar parks charging rip-off prices, the impact on consumers who have invested in PV systems can only be disheartening.
Many people want to do their bit for the environment and also reduce their electricity bills, but the prospect of investing in a system that doesn’t seem to benefit them can only be daunting.
This is especially true perhaps for older generations who might never recoup their investment at all. MPs heard that many people had taken out loans to install PV systems with the promise of cheaper bills.
Dipa MP Michalis Giakoumis accused the government of dishonesty. “Cutting off renewable energy to consumers who installed solar panels is borderline fraud,” he said.
MPs also heard that a storage system when it does come, would only cover large solar parks, not households
An interim solution until the grid is eventually up to scratch in maybe ten years could be off-grid PV systems. There seems to be a number of companies offering this in Cyprus though the situation surrounding this option is unclear.
No one seems to be lobbying for it either perhaps because someone’s profits would be impinged.
According to an EU document the concept of a “prosumer” is generally defined as “autonomous producers that generate electricity for own consumption”.
Cyprus supports own consumption, the document says. It would involve the installation of ground-mounted PV plus a battery storage unit.
It may cost a bit more in terms of investment but at least ordinary people wouldn’t be left to the mercies of the state-run monopoly or the other vested interests currently running the PV show to the detriment of consumers.
MPs at the House energy committee heard on Tuesday that 167,000 megawatt-hours of RES were wasted in 2024. That would have powered almost 335,000 households for more than a month.
The wasted RES for 2023 was 36,700 megawatt-hours and in 2022 it was 12,700 megawatt-hours. Now we seem to be approaching levels of insanity.
People are being pushed into PV schemes they’re told will save them tons of money in electricity bills but then find themselves being cut from the antiquated grid on a more frequent basis. They then end up paying the same high rates as everybody else.
When Cyprus jumped on the net zero bandwagon, did no one ask where the extra power could be stored? Is foresight a dirty word among our policymakers?
During the heated discussion on Tuesday, the government was lambasted for “an absolute lack of policy”.
Committee Chairman and Disy MP Kyriakos Hadjiyiannis accused the state of deceiving people into investing in solar panels.
He also claimed that money from the renewable energy fund that everyone has been paying into on their electricity bills for decades, was being misused for among other things social policies instead of expanding storage capacity. That’s also aside from the hundreds of millions Cyprus pays every year for emissions.
Wider energy issues aside and the vested interests flooding the country with solar parks charging rip-off prices, the impact on consumers who have invested in PV systems can only be disheartening.
Many people want to do their bit for the environment and also reduce their electricity bills, but the prospect of investing in a system that doesn’t seem to benefit them can only be daunting.
This is especially true perhaps for older generations who might never recoup their investment at all. MPs heard that many people had taken out loans to install PV systems with the promise of cheaper bills.
Dipa MP Michalis Giakoumis accused the government of dishonesty. “Cutting off renewable energy to consumers who installed solar panels is borderline fraud,” he said.
MPs also heard that a storage system when it does come, would only cover large solar parks, not households
An interim solution until the grid is eventually up to scratch in maybe ten years could be off-grid PV systems. There seems to be a number of companies offering this in Cyprus though the situation surrounding this option is unclear.
No one seems to be lobbying for it either perhaps because someone’s profits would be impinged.
According to an EU document the concept of a “prosumer” is generally defined as “autonomous producers that generate electricity for own consumption”.
Cyprus supports own consumption, the document says. It would involve the installation of ground-mounted PV plus a battery storage unit.
It may cost a bit more in terms of investment but at least ordinary people wouldn’t be left to the mercies of the state-run monopoly or the other vested interests currently running the PV show to the detriment of consumers.