Uni of Cyprus and Energy Regulator to collaborate on energy issues

AN AGREEMENT between the Energy Regulator (CERA) and Cyprus University aims to help Cyprus recover from the costly energy crisis it was plunged into following the July 11 naval base blast which knocked out half of the island’s electricity production.

The two bodies aim to promote development and activities relating to energy and development, focus on renewable energy sources and create an array of academic programmes to encourage research on energy issues. 

Postgraduate students, for example, will be able to research issues which will be directly relevant to CERA’s interests while staff and students will be able to train and study at either institution. 

“Together we can develop a… plan so that in the next few years Cyprus has energy sufficiency,” Cyprus University’s rector Christos Christofides said yesterday.

CERA chairman Giorgos Shammas added that the collaboration was beneficial because “energy, the environment and the economy are interconnected” and so studies should be long term to create a “balanced strategy”. 

Asked when Cyprus might fully meet its energy needs given that energy production is still at its limits, Shammas said that this required the capacity to produce additional energy. 

“The damaged units (at Vassilikos Power Station) have to be fixed to have reserves,” Shammas said. 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.