Over the past five years, the Department of Environment has issued 239 permits for the construction of commercial photovoltaic parks (from 150 kW to 10 MW) in rural areas, irrigated areas, conservation areas, quarries and agricultural land.
It should be noted that despite the special conditions that are provided when issuing licenses, many companies ignore them. The greatest concern is the felling of trees and other green spaces. At the same time, offenders used to go unpunished. At most, they got a fine of 5 thousand euros.
Recently, however, due to a lot of resonance and reaction from environmentalists, the Department has begun to look more closely at applications.
There are 239 applications filed over the past five years, of which 119 were in 2018. They relate to the construction of photovoltaic parks with a capacity of 1 MW to 7.5 MW in densely populated areas - Agios Ioannis Malountas and Avgorou.
In the long list of 2018 applications, the following companies stand out:
- T. Timotheou Architects and Associates Ltd - 10 MW park in Prastio Avdimou community
- Solight Ltd - 10 MW park in the Kokkinotrimithia community
- Reszeus Electricity Company Ltd - 7.5 MW park in Kokkinotrimithia
- Cyfield Ltd is a 6.5 MW park in the community of Agios Ioannis Malountas.
In the community of Agios Ioannis Malountas, in addition to the above license, 15 more licenses were issued, of which five refer to parks with a capacity of 5 MW and two more - to parks with a capacity of about 4 MW.
In 2017, an application was submitted for the creation of the largest 10 MW photovoltaic park from Vasilikos Cement Public Company Ltd in the area of the village of Psematismenos - Choirokoitia (Larnaca district). DXD Energy Ltd has also applied for the construction of the largest park in the Ormidia area (Larnaca). In the same year, three more applications were submitted for the construction of photovoltaic parks in the village of Agios Ioannis Malountas.
Over the past three years, a total of 99 new PV park applications have been filed.
In particular, in 2019, the Department received 59 applications, of which the project of Haffneve Holding Ltd - a 6 MW park in the Tersefanou community (Larnaca) and Christakis Vasiliou Christodoulou Investments Ltd - a 6 MW park in the Anogyra community (Limassol).
In 2020, a total of 30 applications were submitted for the construction of parks with a capacity of about 150 kW each, as well as an application for the construction of a 7.7 MW photovoltaic park owned by My Sun Park Monagroulli Ltd in the Monagroulli community in the Limassol area.
Finally, in the first half of 2021, 10 applications were submitted, of which seven were in Paphos and three in Nicosia. All applications relate to the construction of low power photovoltaic parks - less than 150 kW. Only one application relates to the construction and expansion of a 6.04 MW photovoltaic park in the community of Agios Ioannis Malountas in the Nicosia district.
Thus, at present, most of the photovoltaic parks are concentrated in the districts of Nicosia (76) and Larnaca (63). Next comes Paphos, Limassol and the controlled territories of the Famagusta district.
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