THE ISLAND’S first photovoltaics park, showcasing a variety of solar energy options, is due to open next week, but don’t get the kids and the picnic basket ready – this is a purely technological park.
The park is the first of its kind in Cyprus and will be inaugurated by Minister of Commerce, Tourism and Industry Antonis Michaelides at a special event next Tuesday at the New Campus of the University Cyprus.
The University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering announced the successful completion of the park, with the unit’s Dr George E. Georghiou saying: “We must recognise the potential importance of the area of photovoltaics for the future energy needs of Cyprus and have instigated a collaboration with the Institute of Physical Electronics at the University of Stuttgart in Germany, one of the pioneering research centres of excellence in Europe in the field of renewable sources of energy and in particular in photovoltaics and solar cells.”
Photovoltaics (PV) is a solar power technology that uses solar photovoltaic arrays or solar cells to provide electricity for human activities. Photovoltaics is also the field of study relating to this technology. Solar cells produce direct current electricity from the sun’s rays, which can be used to power equipment or to recharge a battery.
The PV park has materialised through a research project funded by the BMU (German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Energy).
“Our team has secured the installation of a PV park worth over 200,000 euros at the University and has also received further funding through the European Union and more specifically through an INTERREG programme,” said Georghiou.
“In addition we are in the process of finalising the details for our participation in other European projects in the near future.”
The programme, funded by the BMU, is a joint collaboration between research teams in Germany, Cyprus and Egypt. It aims to set up the infrastructure for continuous monitoring of 15 different PV systems of the latest technologies (together with weather and irradiation data) and to assess their performance under the exact same conditions through exhaustive data analysis.
“The ultimate goal is to establish the PV potential for Cyprus, to disseminate the performance results and to inform the interested parties regarding the most promising technology for the conditions in Cyprus,” said Georghiou.
“The transfer of valuable knowledge is an effort to initiate quality research in the area of PV.
This will have a positive impact on the quality of life in Cyprus, where there is a clear and urgent need for the promotion and deployment of renewable sources of energy in the quest to reach the strategic goal set by our government for 6 per cent of the demand in electricity production to be met by renewable sources of energy by 2010.”
He also noted the benefits for the university’s students, who will spend part of their time in a European centre of excellence in the field.
“It is predicted that by 2020, solar energy will potentially be able to provide electricity to more than one billion people worldwide and will create more than two million jobs with a potential annual rise of 35 per cent. Clearly this is an area that Cyprus should be actively involved in given its ideal geographical position,” he said.
Large-scale incentive programmes, offering financial incentives like the ability to sell excess electricity back to the public grid have greatly accelerated the pace of solar PV installations around the world.
Solar arrays are increasingly incorporated into new domestic and industrial buildings as a principal or ancillary source of electrical power. Typically, an array is incorporated into the roof or walls of a building. Arrays can also be retrofitted into existing buildings.
Where a building is at a considerable distance from the public electricity supply in remote areas, PV may be the only possibility for generating electricity, or PV may be used together with wind and/or hydroelectric power.
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