Sales of solar panels to businesses have ground to a halt as the industry waits for the government to set the new rate to be paid by Enemalta for the production of electricity, Times of Malta has learnt. On top of this, no subsidy schemes are in place to encourage such investment in photovoltaic installations on a commercial scale.
Speaking to this newspaper, several suppliers said sales had literally dried up.
“The last feed-in tariff for commercial installations was issued last August, backdated to July 1, and expired on September 30, 2013.
“Since then, all we could do was issue quotations and explain our product in more detail.
“Without a feed-in tariff, with which companies could calculate their return on investment, we could not conclude any deals,” an employee of a major supplier said.
He said the situation had not changed throughout October, November and December, with appeals for a new feed-in tariff falling on deaf ears.
Several firms approached his company asking for quotations and information on systems they could install on rooftops but nothing was concluded.
An employee of another company, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said he could not understand what was keeping the government from announcing the tariff, saying the authorities knew that no deal could be finalised without that figure.
Questions sent to the Energy Ministry on December 18 remained unanswered at the time of writing yesterday, despite several reminders.
The ministry was asked whether it was aware that sales of commercial systems had fizzled out, whether a new feed-in tariff would be set, and by when.
Companies ‘can afford to wait for 3 months’
Noel Gauci, president of the renewable energy section of the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU, was not worried about the situation, choosing to take the perspective of prospective investors.
He said firms that wanted to invest in commercial photovoltaic panels “could afford” to wait for three months, adding that he had been assured that the new tariff would be published through a legal notice.
Mr Gauci said he was more concerned about the fact that there was no scheme to entice companies to make a step in this direction, as was the case with solar panels for domestic use.
Malta has not had a scheme for commercial PV installations since July 2012, when a previous programme, which was fully subscribed, was stopped when the police launched investigations into irregularities.
Another scheme, meant to replace it, was launched in August last year but this too was suspended days later because of “technical problems in the pre-selection of suppliers”.
The €5.5 million, EU-funded scheme was meant to provide financing for companies to invest in power-saving measures and alternative energy sources.
Eligible firms would have received up to 50 per cent (or a maximum of €120,000) of the cost of PV installations having a minimum output of 20 kilowatts.
The scheme was suspended after Times of Malta had revealed that only five suppliers had been chosen from the 40 that had originally applied for accreditation, resulting in questions on how and why these had been picked.
While commercial sales were at a standstill, Mr Gauci said sales of domestic installations were doing well, with more than 500 families availing themselves of a GRTU-approved programme that tapped into a Bank of Valletta loan.
mxuereb@timesofmalta.com