Cyprus sees share of large-scale solar rise

A 1.5 MW project financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was commissioned in Nisou. The plant is one of five MW-sized solar projects supported by EBRD in Cyprus.

A 1.5 MW solar power plant in Nisou, Cyprus

Image: EBRD

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The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced that the first plant of a 11.9 MW PV project pipeline it financed in Cyprus has now come online. The installation was officially inaugurated in the presence of the country’s Minister of Energy and Commerce, Yiorgos Lakkotrypis.

The 1.5 MW PV plant is located in Nisou, in the Nicosia District, near the border with the Turkish part of the island. The project’s developer is the local company CYPV Energy Ltd, which is also building a 1.5 MW plant in Dhali and a 4.4 MW plant in Frenaros with the support of EBRD. These two plants are also part of the above-mentioned 11.9 MW pipeline, which comprises another three projects.

Overall, the EBRD has provided €10.85 million ($11.7 million) in debt financing for these projects, which are expected to increase the country’s installed PV capacity by 12%, and to raise the share of renewables in the energy mix to approximately 9%. EBRD specified that the six projects are the first to be structured on a non-recourse financing basis.

CYPV Energy won via a competitive tender for photovoltaic capacity in January 2013. Greece-based module maker Recom provided 45,000 of its polycrystalline 60-cell Amur Leopard 260 modules for the projects. Greece’s Sunel Ltd served as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the projects, while SunTechnics, a subsidiary of GDL Green Energy, which also owns CYPV Energy, handled management, operation and maintenance of the parks.

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Of the twenty three PV parks tendered in 2013, pv magazine has learned that until April of last year, only five projects (corresponding to 8.1 MW) have been installed and connected to the grid.

The Republic of Cyprus has installed 78 MW of solar PV systems as of the end of March of 2016. Of thin capacity, 22.7 MW was installed via the net-metering scheme. Another 82 MW of PV systems is expected to be installed by 2018, either through the tendered plants or net-metering, CYPV Energy told pv magazine last year.

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