A €4 million climate control system, which will use seawater to heat and cool retail and office space and 250 homes at Tigné Point and Manoel Island, was inaugurated yesterday by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.

The project was carried out by Solutions and Infrastructure Services Ltd, a joint venture between property developers Midi plc and technology giants Siemens and which took 21,000 man hours to put together.

Dr Gonzi said such a plant was good news for Malta because it came at a time when energy challenges were growing both because of the rising cost of oil and also because of climate change.

He said the plant complemented the extension of the Delimara power station, which would replace the old Marsa energy plant.

He mentioned other initiatives being taken by the government such as subsidy schemes for investment in alternative energy, pointing out that 8,000 families and 100 companies had already subscribed to such schemes.

Engineer Franco Filippi, a director at Siemens, explained that seawater would be used to produce cold air in the summer months and heat in winter to supply residential, retail and commercial clients.

The environmentally- and energy-efficient climate control system, known as a heating and cooling and air conditioning system, will supply heating and cooling to 25,000 square metres of retail space and 250 homes and also cater for 20,000 square metres of office and commercial space at the Tigné Point project, which is under construction. An estimated 1,500 cubic metres of seawater will be pumped every hour and the plant will save about 6.5 million kilowatt hours every year.