Cyprus-Forum.com

[paliometoxo]

CYPRUS could be looking at penalties of around €20 million annually for its CO2 emissions in the immediate term, for as long as the island's power grids continues to rely on polluting heavy fuel oil and renewable energy generation is low, Energy Regulatory Authority Chairman Costas Ioannou has said.

Ioannou told Reuters in an interview he was however optimistic the island could meet its EU commitment to generate 6.0 per cent of its total energy from renewables by 2010, and 13 per cent by 2020.

He said Cyprus was holding informal talks with Egypt and Algeria for the supply of liquid natural gas as the island tries to reduce its reliance on heavy fuel oils. "We don't have the luxury other countries of Europe have of being interconnected. We are a small isolated system and we are
using heavy fuel oil for the generation of all our electricity," Ioannou said.

Cyprus, he said, was stuck with heavy fuel to a large degree until around 2013, when the island was expected to start using LNG. Its estimated LNG needs were about 1 bcm per year, he said.

Ioannou, who has participated in exploratory contacts Cypriot officials have held on supply sources for gas, said informal consultations had been held with state corporations in Algeria and Egypt. An Algerian delegation was due in Cyprus in March, he said.

"These are preliminary discussions to see whether they can supply the quantities we want to the timescale and schedule we require, and at what price," Ioannou said. He did not rule out

talks with other countries.

Asked when he expected preliminary talks to be wrapped up, he said: "They should be completed by June, I think. We will decide at that point whether to enter negotiations."

The introduction of gas into the island's energy grid has experienced several delays over the years.

This month, the government was expected to mandate the island's electricity authority, the EAC, responsibility for gas storage, Ioannou said.

The process must be timed to coincide with the import and distribution of gas by Defa, a public corporation set up specifically for that purpose. Both projects have a timeframe of 2013.

Cyprus opened 35 per cent of its electricity market when it joined the European Union in May 2004, and in January 2009 liberalised the market for all non-household consumers. Based on

a derogation the island got from the EU, all restrictions will be eased in January 2014.

The island is now sprinting to meet a European Union commitment that 6 per cent of its energy be from renewable sources by 2010. It is now less than 1 per cent.

Ioannou said the only means to achieve the target in the year left was through wind farms.

Authorities have issued permits for windparks which can generate the equivalent of 450 megawatts in energy, though to cover the 6 per cent threshold by 2010 about 180 megawatts is needed.

"There is a good chance we will have two or three in operation next year which would cover the six per cent required," Ioannou said.

"As regulatory authority we don't believe we should only be looking at the targets others set for us, but to exceed them, so it is going to be a continuous effort to promote renewables," he said.

[Z4]

With all the bloody smokers your right!

[DT.]

Excellent!!! Nothing tells you, you've arrived in an exclusive club of industrialised nations more than a Co2 fine from the EU.

[CyprusF1Club]

nothing tells you more that you live in a capitalism country with ignorance to the people when you get CO2 fine from EU, and at same time you got more than 300 of sunny days and able to use clean green technology called solar energy. Dont you just love it?

[DT.]

nothing tells you more that you live in a capitalism country with ignorance to the people when you get CO2 fine from EU, and at same time you got more than 300 of sunny days and able to use clean green technology called solar energy. Dont you just love it?

Thats because we have a neanderthal in charge of our energy policy. Mr Solon Kassinis.

[Novus]

Maybe Cyprus should consider biodiesel from algae production plants. The excess carbo dioxide emissions can be captured and fed to the fast growing algae and then the same algae can be turned into biodiesel and reused back in the power plant again.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0111/p01s03-sten.html