MPs raise concerns over uncontrolled development of PV parks

An unlikely alliance of farmers, environmentalists and hunters have expressed alarm at the government’s policy of selling off fertile land to photovoltaic (PV) companies, without comprehensive planning or adequate oversight.

Some representatives of the converging interests referred to the trend as “a major crime involving the unscrupulous development of reclaimed land by entrepreneurs taking advantage of public money.”

The double grievances of selling agriculturally zoned lands of lower price valuation for the creation of highly profitable PV parks, on top of the threat this poses to the island’s food security, were raised in Tuesday’s House agriculture committee.

The PV park sales are seen to be encroaching not only on agricultural and pasture lands, but also on scrublands and other wild areas that act as irreplaceable biodiversity buffers and corridors.

Farmers have previously raised the anomaly that lands for which significant investments had been made towards food production, such as irrigation systems, are now being eyed by renewable energy source (RES) investors.

Concerned stakeholders found themselves atypically allied with the hunters’ federation, which has also expressed mounting unease.

Despite tacit consensus that food security is predicated on guardianship of agricultural land, loopholes in the law allow for the destruction of vast tracts for energy production, the committee heard.

Greens MP Charalambos Theopemtou told Cyprus Mail that this lack of coherent management is part-and-parcel of the island’s lack of a coherent energy strategy as a whole.

“Although an initial environmental survey exists on the recommended allocation of PV parklands, its findings are being side lined,” Theopemptou said.

MPs, as well as representatives of agricultural and environmental organisations, detailed the risks posed to both food security and conservation by the untracked shrinkage of fertile land.

An upcoming meeting has been called where the relevant oversight services will answer to what degree they support the existing policy and whether they aim to change it in order to safeguard land for cultivation.

Precise details of the PV companies’ operations have been requested, including total land coverage to date, and the ratio of agricultural and reclaimed lands for which permits have already been procured.

Some MPs argued that in certain areas licences would not have been granted without intervention from business interests.

An agriculture department spokesman recalled that the position to date had been against the granting of permits for RES projects on irrigated, cultivated, and moderate-fertility lands where grain is grown for livestock.

The only exception was to have been the approval of 24 raised agrovoltaic pilot projects, run in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Institute, exploring the dual purposing of land to simultaneously produce both energy and food.

A representative of the Nicosia district administration noted that building authorities are authorised to license PV parks up to 150kW on agricultural land without an environmental study being required. Only larger projects require both a planning and a building permit.

The chamber of commerce (Keve) stated that increases in RES penetration to bring down electricity costs and preservation of fertile agricultural land were both necessary.

Environmental NGO Terra Cypria argued that priority should be given to PV installation in “dead” areas, such the roofs of outdoor parking lots and houses.

The energy department, for its part, stated that based on the existing plan, 750MW of RES must be installed, and in the coming years the target will be raised to 1,500MW. The currently installed PV power amounts to 480MW.