The lack of ‘solar rights’ laws protecting owners of photovoltaic panels from over-shading by nearby tall buildings is a major obstacle to widespread uptake of the technology, according to the National Renewable Energy Plan.
The newly-published revised plan aims to have 4.7 per cent of all Malta’s energy needs met by solar energy within the next four years, with the majority of energy generated from rooftop installations.
But the plan notes that owners of photovoltaic panels and solar water heaters are increasingly facing problems from adjacent multi-storey developments creating severe over-shading and reducing the effectiveness of their solar investments.
“Solar rights are not protected by legislation in Malta,” the plan’s authors state. “Such protection is difficult as it interferes with other property rights which have developed over time as a result of the characteristics of property ownership in Malta – limited availability and high value of land, parcelling and inheritance.
“The lack of legal protection of solar rights is a handicap to an individual’s investment in solar energy.”
Former environment minister Leo Brincat had called for the introduction of solar rights from the Opposition benches back in 2008 but no progress has been made since.
Laws regulating solar access already exist in the Netherlands and a number of US states. California’s Solar Rights Act, which gives residents the legal right to use sunlight for energy purposes without obstacles, has been in force for more than 30 years.
The lack of legal protection of solar rights is a handicap to an individual’s investment in solar energy
Malta’s solar potential is considered to be among the highest in the EU, with over 62 per cent of the year characterised by clear sky. Uptake increased fivefold between 2012 and 2015 due to falling prices and a number of incentive schemes.
The country is obliged by the European Commission to generate 10 per cent of its energy from renewable sources within the next four years. There is also another 10 per cent target in the transport sector. The actual overall figure stood at 4.2 per cent in 2014.
The original 2010 plan for reaching these targets placed a heavy emphasis on onshore and offshore wind farms, which were expected to generate nearly half of Malta’s total renewables output.
But the revised National Renewable Energy Action Plan, published last week for public consultation, completely scraps wind energy in favour of an increased focus on solar energy, which will now account for 4.7 per cent of all energy output.
Some 2.7 square kilometres will be devoted to PV panels, more than doubling Malta’s solar energy generation within four years.
Priority will be given to rooftops but large-scale farms in quarries, water reservoirs, car parks and disused landfills account for the major part of the additional solar generation.
The Planning Authority is in the final stages of formulating a solar farms policy, which will direct such plants away from virgin land and onto already disturbed sites. Once the plan is in place, a competitive bidding process could begin by early next year.
The plans will be supported by feed-in tariffs and €5 million a year in grants for domestic PV installations.