Plans for a new solar farm to be built in the buffer zone which separates Cyprus’ two sides are “being examined in the context of confidence-building measures”, transmission system operator spokeswoman Chara Kousiappa said on Wednesday.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, she said there are no concrete plans as yet for the park, which was announced on Tuesday by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after the enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem which took place in Geneva.

“There is nothing to announce as yet, but the matter is being examined,” she added.

The idea of a solar farm had first been put forward by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in 2022.

Her plan entailed the construction of a solar farm which would produce between 30 and 50 megawatts, with von der Leyen saying at the time that 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 the island’s grids”.

The European Union carried out a pre-feasibility study for such a project last year, with the EU’s then director-general for structural reform support Mario Nava hailing the study’s completion last June.

“I am pleased that the first step, an EU-funded pre-feasibility study for this project, has been completed,” he said, adding that the findings had been presented to Cyprus’ two sides.

The next step, he said, would be for both communities to decide on the solar farm’s location, agree to “the proposed technological and technical solutions”, and decide on the level of investment each community would provide as well as its ownership and electricity-sharing ratio.

He added that the project would increase cooperation between the island’s two sides in the field of energy and build trust.

“We also hope that it would inspire more solar energy projects, for which there is huge potential in Cyprus due to the sunny weather. So far there is no solar power plant in the island with a storage facility, which is important to ensure electricity supply during after-sun hours. The project is breaking new ground in this regard,” he added.