An all-out attack and unsubstantiated accusations against Alpha Cyprus and alphanews.The leader of Immediate Democracy and Member of the European Parliament, Fidias Panayiotou, launched a live attack over the publication of an article by Dr. Andreas Prokopiou, which presented evidence and data in response to the 26-year-old politician’s online petition to the President of the Republic calling for a 20% reduction in electricity prices.
The station contacted Mr. Panagiotou and asked him to elaborate on his views on the program “Alpha Summer.” He, however, stated that he would be abroad for the next fifteen days.
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At the same time, the views expressed by Mr. Panayiotou on social media were subject to a thorough investigation and review by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Chrysanthos Marouchos, an electrical engineer and coordinator of ETEK’s Energy Committee, concluded that “Mr. Panagiotou’s numbers don’t add up,” as the contribution of renewable energy sources to Cyprus’s energy mix amounts to just 25%. In fact, solar farms and self-consumption systems account for only 23%. The two systems account for nearly equal shares of production; however, solar farms are subject to higher feed-in tariff cuts, which will reach 47% by 2025.
“The conclusion is that even if electricity from solar farms were provided for free, the price of electricity cannot fall below 5% when we factor in grid costs and other expenses.”
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Mr. Marouchos also explained why the MEP’s claim about profits in the billions of euros is baseless, since the entire electricity sector is valued at one billion euros for 2025, before taxes and VAT. He noted that solar farms account for just 6% of the sector and, as a result, do not account for more than 30 million euros in revenue.
“We can’t know exactly how much the profits are, but the cost is certainly not just 7 or 8 cents as reported. That would be the case without any deductions. Since 45% is deducted, they essentially have a business that’s closed half the days of the week.”
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Mr. Marouchos pointed out that the unprofitable operation of such businesses has already led to many solar farms to shut down or seek new buyers in order to continue feeding 100% of the energy generated from renewable sources into the grid.
“As long as we don’t have storage systems and 30% or 50% is curtailed, obviously the cost of electricity will be high, and the cost of renewable energy won’t be 7–8%; it will be double that, and therefore, we derive no benefit.”
The Electrical Engineer and Coordinator of the ETEK Energy Committee emphasized that electricity prices are set by the CERA and not by the government, noting that during periods of excess production, electricity is provided almost for free by utility companies “so they don’t have to waste it.”
