The energy regulator has set no deadline for the application process, noting that it will take applications until allotted megawatts (MW) have been used up.

Eligible to apply are also tenants, but they must produce a lease contract or have secured the property owner’s consent in writing.

Under this year’s renewable energy sources scheme, 15MW has been allotted to net metering, and an additional 5MW of power to self-production systems.

The scheme is designed to cover some 4,500 homes, and 450 licenses will be given to low-income and other financially vulnerable groups.

The government has set aside €1m from the RES fund to subsidise net metering for ‘vulnerable households’, where it will put up around 50% of the capital outlay. In 2013, some €4m had been allocated to vulnerable groups.

The net metering programme – a policy aimed at generating savings from electricity consumption – started last year. The scheme invited 5,000 applications for net-metering systems to be installed in homes, 2,000 of which related to low-income household installations, though only about 400 had applied.

This year however may be the last where vulnerable groups are subsidised, as the RES fund is forecast to go into deficit over the next to two three years.

The fund has prior financing obligations for RES projects, such as old contracts that did not include a tariff renegotiation clause, so the government still has to pay the agreed price despite electricity production costs going down since.

Source: Cyprus Mail