The Electricity Authority’s (EAC) photovoltaic park in Akrotiri is a benchmark, and it will contribute to the increase of photovoltaic power in Cyprus, the Minister of Energy Giorgos Papanastasiou noted, inaugurating the park on Tuesday.

Papanastasiou stressed in his address the project added to the EAC’s green portfolio has a total capacity of 12 MW with the Minister expressing hope that soon the EAC’s green portfolio will be further enriched with additional RES projects, to help the EAC in its green transition, but at the same time to reduce the cost of production, the cost of purchasing greenhouse gas emission rights and the cost of electricity provided to its customers".

At the same time, he continued, the EAC's PV park in Akrotiri will contribute to the increase of the existing photovoltaic power of Cyprus, contributing decisively to the strengthening of the green development model that the Government adopted and towards achieving the national energy goals set until 2030.

Noting that the goals of the common climate strategy of the EU countries are becoming more and more ambitious, the Energy Minister noted that Cyprus and all other member states are called upon to accelerate efforts towards the green transition.

Recalling that last July a draft of the revised National Plan for Energy and Climate was submitted to the European Commission, Papanastasiou stated that "at this stage we are working on the recommendations sent to us by the European Commission to improve the final text of the National Plan, the which must be submitted by the end of June 2024".

He also underlined the need to speed up the pace, simplify procedures and promote those solutions that will help to effectively increase the percentage of energy from RES, at the lowest possible cost.

According to project coordinator Konstantinos Rouvas, Akrotiri PV park is located on an area of 184 decares, with 18,250 panels of 660W, with the total cost of the project amounting to 9.7 million euros.