Cyprus-Forum.com

[kroski]

is there anyone who built a house with solar energy heating and has electricity on solar power? Does anyone in this country (with 340 sunny days per year) use solar energy for anything else except heating water?
Please tell me your experience about this, advantages, disadvantages....

[Nikitas]

There are hundreds of Photovoltaic (PV) systems around. By the latest EU decisions all countries in the EU will have to produce 20 per cent of their power through renewable sources. So Cyprus will soon have to introduce two way electricity meters that will credit you for the current you produce through PVs or wind power.

If there are no companies in Cyprus that sell PVs look in the net for German companies. Germany is leading now in total installed power and their firms have a lot of experience.

Here in Greece I looked into installing PVs on the roof to cover the annual electricity expenditure for a 200 meter house. The quotes were around 25 000 Euros.

[cyprusgrump]

In theory you can get a huge grant to install a PV based system on your house.

Then you can sell the excess electricity that you produce back to the grid for more than each unit costs you to buy from the grid.

I was hugely enthusiastic about such a system when we were having the house built.

However, it seems (no surprise here) that the hurdles that you have to jump through to get the grant are so vast that it almost never happens. That would have left us with a CY£25,000 bill for solar panels that would never have been able to pay for themselves in their limited life-span.

[purdey]

Good advice Nikitas.The only problem is getting the Cyprus Electricity Board to recognise there are alternatives out there.It took me 7 months to get them to my property and discuss a second meter.I have been looking at a PV system from Nuremberg (Germany) and for my houses 485x2 metres we are looking at 28 000 Euros installed.

[tessintrnc]

Purdey, if you DON'T get a grant towards this, is it really worth doing? Over £20k st. will take an awful long time to get back? Although its good for the environment I know.

Tess

[purdey]

Tess I have been through the Cypriot grant procedure,not for PV but for Historic buildings.We got there in the end but it did take five years.Yes you are right 20k is alot and to be honest I do not think it is worth it.
Saying that I would love the chance of giving it a go,and maybe trying to get some backing from a few property developers.
There is also a grant service available in the Uk for this set up but again the outlay does not make it viable.

[Nikitas]

The grant in Greece varies according to the development area you fall into. In some areas you get 60 per cent of your capital outlay in the form of a grant. If you are not in one of those areas you must amortize the panels which you can do in three years because the buyback price per KWh is 45 Eurocents.

The thing I am looking into now is the price of PVs on the open market. Something tells me that the local price, in Greece and perhaps the same goes for Cyprus, is high precisely because there are grants and generous buybacks. Dealers know of the perks and keep prices high.

Last year I had found a shipment of Japanese made PVs, FOB USA East coast for 1 USD per square foot, about 10 USD per meter square. I wish I had bought them!

PVs are not the only alternative. A British firm has a vertical wind turbine, guaranteed silent and vibration free and that is attractive too. A Texas based firm has a similar turbine suitable for sloping roofs. THe generator is magnetic levitation type and is also silent and vibration free.

I am not much of en ecologist, but the idea of charging the electricity company makes me smile.....

I have also investigated solar powered water desalinators and it is surprising that they are not in every hotel in the eastern Med yet. They produce several tons of water per day.

[purdey]

Israel is great spot for cheap PV's,American products vastly cheaper than anything else on the market,but the Israelies will not enter into export..