Bicommunal buffer zone solar farm touted

Nicosia mayoral candidate and current Disy MP Nikos Tornaritis on Monday announced plans to construct a bicommunal solar farm in the buffer zone in the city.

Speaking at a meeting with the European Commission’s head of delegation in Cyprus Myrto Zambarta, he revived an idea which had first been put forward by the Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen in 2022.

The plan, he said, would see a solar farm producing between 30 and 50 megawatts constructed in the buffer zone.

In 2022, Von der Leyen said the Commission had “prepared the ground for the development of a pre-feasibility study.

“The Commission is active,” she said, adding that she hoped to “establish a bicommunal solar farm, compatible with the technical requirements of both grids.

“This facility would contribute to meeting the energy needs of both communities, increasing the rate of renewable energy sources in the energy mix, in line with the European Green Deal,” she explained.

Speaking on Monday, Tornaritis said he wished for the Nicosia Municipality to be a “key partner” in the project’s implementation.

He added that Nicosia has “extensive experience of cooperation in similar large projects of of mutual benefit since the time of Lellos Demetriades and Mustafa Akinci,” the pair of Nicosia mayors who united the city’s sewerage systems in the 1980s.”

He said there are “great possibilities in utilising renewable energy sources,” and that the Nicosia Municipality will be a “protagonist in an ambitious European project.”