Module manufacturer Recom has moved to take a slice of the island’s promising PV market.
Image: Recom
French PV manufacturer Recom has announced it has acquired some 20 MW of solar capacity in Cyprus that it is aiming to install this year.
A 4.5 MW solar farm in Pissouri is already under construction, said the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) provider.
However, the press announcement stating all the planned projects were secured through tenders features some discrepancies.
The Recom press release says the company has secured, “through tenders, 20 MW of solar projects out of 35 MW offered, which are planned to be installed during 2019”. In fact, Cyprus has tendered some 50 MW of solar capacity, rather than the 35 MW stated.
The second discrepancy is that – according to pv magazine’s information – of the 50 MW tendered, 35 MW has already been installed, hinting Recom has simply acquired at least a proportion of the 20 MW of capacity it referred to rather than securing it all through procurement exercises.
Hot market
Nevertheless, Recom’s acquisition of capacity in Cyprus is in line with expectations the island state will be one of the European Union’s hottest PV markets this year.
pv magazine recently presented detailed analysis of the Cypriot PV market, the hottest segment of which comprises ‘subsidy-free’ projects.
With the uptake of energy from PV – in tendered, non-tendered and net-metered projects – slow in Cyprus to date despite the country signing up to EU renewable energy targets, the Cypriot government has come up with a new plan to install a wave of ‘subsidy-free’ projects.
And with those ‘subsidy-free’ projects probably receiving more public funds than tendered facilities – courtesy of a plan by the electricity authority to refund such projects the savings made on fossil fuel generation costs – investors may struggle to find any hotter prospects in European PV at present.
Source: pv magazine
