Residents of the Famagusta district village of Frenaros have been protesting about the plans of Bioland Energy to build huge photovoltaic parks in their area. They walked out of a public presentation of the project last week, furious because the PV park would cover an area twice that of village and to add insult to injury, would be built on state-owned land.
Resident told Politis that the parks would cover 989,000 square metres of land, while the village’s area was half of that, covering 554,000 square metres. Bioland Energy responded to these accusations earlier this week, with a statement, claiming that data presented by deputy mayor Costas Michail did not correspond to reality as the PV parks would be on an area of 449,071 square metres, of which about three quarters was barren rocky land.
In its statement, Bioland Energy gave all the positive points of the project – neighbouring farms would carry on having access to the road and continue their work unhindered; 14,000 trees and shrubs would be planted in between the panels, while water and feeding points for birds would be set up to attract birds and wildlife. The project would also create jobs for which only locals would be hired, the electricity grid would be upgraded at the company’s expense and local households and businesses would have a 10 to 15 per cent discount on their electricity. In addition to all this, the company would also give €150,000 for public benefit projects.
These sweeteners, obviously, failed to win the support of the Frenaros residents who walked out of the public consultation. Were they expecting more money for public benefit projects or bigger discounts on their electricity? Perhaps their objections were not about the money, but they simply did not want to be subjected to the eyesore of vast expanses of PV panels in their locality. The barren, rocky land surrounding the village, referred to by the company is still infinitely better to look at than thousands of PV panels, even if trees were planted.
The company’s generosity, it should be said, is the direct result of the obscenely high rates the government pays PV parks, which have become a licence to print money for the owners. The government pays parks a rate 10 per cent below what is charged by the Electricity Authority even though the production costs of the former are much smaller than those of the latter. The profits are huge, which is why big businesses are investing in PV parks. No other investment offers such big returns.
In the case of Bioland Energy, its park in Frenaros will be on state land, which was leased directly to the company without competitive tenders. It may have still made the highest offer for the barren and rocky land – if there was a tenders’ procedure – but we would never know. Given the very high profit margins for PV parks, guaranteed by the economically unjustifiable, high rate they are paid for the electricity they produce, the state could have made a lot more money if there was a tenders’ procedure; or the local authority may have leased the land to preserve the barren landscape.
It is unclear why the ministry of energy does not revisit the rates paid to PV parks, which should also be subject to tenders’ procedure, so the lowest possible rate could be secured. The current regime is scandalous and the government must find a way to put an end to it.
