The government pledged Thursday to tighten up procedures for granting state land intended for the construction of solar parks, aiming to make these practices “more transparent and meritocratic”.
In a statement, the interior ministry said that, going forward, it would designate certain ‘go-to areas’ where solar parks would be located.
This designation would be governed by specific environmental and other criteria.
“Up until now”, the ministry said, “any interested party [meaning businesses interested in building solar parks] would apply to the Department of Lands and Surveys and manage to reserve state land, if the land was available, without any other criteria or preconditions.
“This resulted in concessions for large tracts of land being given.”
In several cases, it added, this led to the creation of “massive photovoltaic parks without prior planning and siting, drawing reaction from local communities”.
The ministry said its technocrats are currently drafting “a new framework governing the concession of state land…which introduces the practice of bidding, ensuring transparency and meritocracy and having positive knock-on effects for the economy as a whole”.
The statement did not go into more detail.
Last month residents of the village of Frenaros, Famagusta district, walked out of a presentation on a planned solar park there that would occupy a large space. They complain that the installation would affect the local flora and fauna and reduce the agricultural land.
It was reported at the time that the park would cover 900,000m² of state land. But the company itself later said the actual area amounted to just half of that.
