The University of Cyprus (UCy) on Thursday announced a tender for the development of the first phase of a photovoltaic (PV) park on its premises.

The ‘Apollo’ project, part of the strategic planning for the transformation of the university’s campus into a sustainable and ‘smart’ city’, will be the second PV park installed on its campus.

In 2015, the campus’ first PV park – ‘Phaedon’ – located at the western entrance, went into operation with a total capacity of 436 kWp (kWp is the maximum output in kilowatts that a PV system can produce).

The ‘Apollo’ PV park is expected to produce 8.4 GWh of clean energy annually, which corresponds to 50 per cent of the university’s current electricity needs, the announcement said.

The first phase includes the installation of PV panels with a power of 5 MWp as well as an energy storage system with a capacity of 2.35 MWh.

The installation of the energy storage system makes the project pioneering, as it will be the first large such installation in Cyprus.

It is expected that the new PV park will reduce the institution’s energy bills by approximately €2 million and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 5,600 tons per year.