A break down of the various procedures and involved organizations for the permitting, financing and installation of renewable energy projects in Cyprus

Abstract

This work summarizes the contribution of the Cyprus Energy Agency and the Cyprus University of Technology to the “Regulatory Frameworks related with Territorial, Landscape and Energy Planning” in the regions participate in the ENERSCAPES project in which the Cyprus Energy Agency is a partner. The ENERSCAPES project is cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund through Transnational Cooperation Programme MED. The promotion of RES is described by a two sided coin since it is highly encouraged by the government on paper through the National Action Plan, however at the same time causes feelings of dissatisfaction to related stakeholders due to the inability of the governmental machine to follow pace. The bureaucratic authorization procedures in Cyprus that an interested RES investor has to experience in order to get the necessary permissions and/or funding for commercial RES projects suffers; it is lacking consistency, time bound relevance, user friendliness, and administrative support. The paper work needed along with the authorities involved construct a multiplicity of subprocesses that require optimization in order to promote RES. The European Union is committed to achieve the by now well known target 20- 20-20 by 2020. EU, as a whole, must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, use RES for 20% of its energy needs and reduce its energy consumption by 20%. In the case of Cyprus, the RES target was set at 13%. In the national Action Plan sectoral targets were set, however authorization procedure has not yet been simplified. The concept of “One stop shop” has not been properly implemented in Cyprus. The current work focuses in documenting and accessing the processes and the governmental departments and authorities involved in licensing, financing and installing of a PV park 100 - 150 kW on the ground. The overall procedure has been divided in six distinct process (from site selection and permitting to connecting the site to the electricity grid - High resolution diagrams can be found at www.cea.org.cy), each one involving numerous and complicated sub-procedures. It is the first time that a simple flow-chart has been designed that will enable investors to follow the various steps that need to be taken for a successful completed RES project in Cyprus.