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Maltese households installed with grid-connected photovoltaic systems are capable of selling their home produced solar energy at half the price they would normally pay for energy generated by fossil fuels such as oil by Enemalta.
The situation is in clear contrast with that of Germany, where households selling solar energy generated by PV systems to the national grid receive up to two and a half times the amount they pay for “normal” electricity.
PV systems produce electricity as long as there is enough light. This means that at certain times the PV system cannot produce all the electricity the household requires. In this case one has to buy energy from Enemalta. But there will also be times when the PV system produces more energy than one needs, enabling the consumer to sell the surplus to Enemalta.
In fact people switching to PV systems have their electricity meter changed by two new ones: one is a two-way meter which will measure how much electricity one buys from Enemalta and the other will measures the amount of electricity sold to Enemalta.
In Malta a 1kWh system should be able to generate between 1200-1600kWh of energy in a year. This is around 25 to 35 per cent of the total electricity consumption of an average family.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for Resources and Infrastructure told MaltaToday that the government has evaluated the costs of operating PV systems. According to the Ministry’s spokesman currently operators of these systems are receiving 2c for every one kWh from Enemalta. This is roughly the equivalent to the cost of fuel that the corporation saves through not generating that same one kWh of energy.
“As a market operator Enemalta has no other obligations,” the ministry’s spokesperson added.
In comments to sister newspaper The Malta Financial and Business Times, Daniel Talma, a Dutch entrepreneur with a vision of promoting PV systems in Malta, called for more incentives to encourage people to use PV systems.
“The initial investment needed for the equipment needed is high. Recuperating this sum in the long term is difficult at current kWh rates.”
Investment in PV systems is still prohibitive due to the major expenses involved in setting it up. Currently this investment costs around Lm20,000.
Talma pointed out that households selling energy to the government are only receiving 2 cents for every kWh whilst paying an average of 4.7 to 5.3 cents for every kWh fo energy they buy from Enemalta.
The Ministry’s spokesperson insisted that PV systems are just one of the technologies that can be employed and that these are employed at a relatively high cost “when compared to fossil fuel and other types of generation.”
However the government is not excluding further incentives for PV systems. “Such incentives are being considered as part of the holistic national strategy on the structured sustainable introduction of renewable energy sources which will be published in due course.”
According to Talma there are only eight households in Malta connected to the national grid who sell their home produced energy to Enemalta. Through selling the surplus energy to Enemalt, consumers who invested in PV systems could gradually make their investment worthwhile.
Talma insists that the price of electricity is bound to go up because of international factors and the possible introduction of eco-taxation in the future: “By paying PV systems suppliers at a better rate and by reducing VAT on PV systems the government would make it easier for this sector to thrive in Malta.”
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