Photovoltaic panels losing 19% of potential generation

Malta’s photovoltaic panels are losing 19% of their potential generational power due to inefficiences or degradation of the solar panels.

Data produced in the House of Representatives in reply to a question by Nationalist MP Stanley Zammit shows PV panels on the island are generating a total of 284 GigaWatt-hours (GWh) of energy.

But a shortfall of 70GWh means the nominal capacity of these panels, 355GWh, is not being reached.

Environment and Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said the shortfall was attributable to various factors, amongst them a degradation in capacity of PV panels over years of usage, lack of maintenance or cleaning of the solar panels, or even a natural variation in sunlight hours from one year to the other.

The figure itself does not include other losses down to distribution shortcomings. “Since these PV panels are distributed in the main across the island’s domestic rooftops, the distance between their location and consumption is a short one, so one expects these losses to be low.”

Just over a decade ago, a 2011 National Renewable Action Plan had revealed that uncertainties on the changs in building heights had discouraged people from investing in photovoltaic energy.

The plan, submitted to the European Commission, had cited a lack of confidence from consumers in investing in PVs which had long pay-back periods, and might later suffer from the shade cast on their properties from higher neighbouring buildings.

Malta’s relaxation of building heights has been ongoing since 2005, starting with penthouses added to three-storey heights, and later growing with further relaxations, exemptions on limits for certain buildings like hotels or homes for the elderly, as well as above 10-storey heights for high-rise buildings.

Solar power accounts for 97% of all renewable energy in Malta, with a significant expansion in recent years in the number of solar panels installed on homes and businesses, as well as the construction of large-scale solar power plants.

Malta had to reach a 10% renewable energy target in 2020, reaching 12.2% in 2021 but still making the island the second worst performer in Europe in terms of RE production.

As part of the EU’s ambitious Green New Deal, Malta has set a target to produce 100% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050, but at current rates, Malta would reach the target just after the turn of the next century in 2100.

Malta’s strategy for achieving carbon neutrality involves the purchase of carbon credits from other countries to offset Malta’s own fossil fuel emissions.

Between 2013 and 2020, Malta purchased €1.4 million worth of “annual emissions allocations” (AEA’s) from Bulgaria, which financed the creation of solar farms in Bulgaria, followed by the purchase of €2 million in tax credits from Estonia in 2020, allowing the island to surpass its renewable energy target.