The Thriamvos company’s truck stops at noon outside the four-story building in the heart of Nicosia.
This is the third rooftop installation of a solar-powered water heating system that Petros Mihali and his assistant, Soteris, have made in the Cypriot capital since their workday began at 7am.
The process is perfectly choreographed and almost always the same: in the scorching afternoon sun, the crane bolted to the truck lifts first the boiler, then the black panel solar panels, then the galvanized steel mount on which the entire system will stand. Within two hours after the thermal technology is set up, the household, say the Thriamvos company’s employees, will “gone solar”.
“We do about four installations a day Cyprus,” says Mihali. “And each takes less than two hours at most because, like the system itself, it’s all so easy.”
Cyprus has surpassed all other EU member states in the adoption of solar hot water systems, with an estimated 93.5 percent of households exploiting the alternative form of energy for domestic needs.
EU figures show that the eastern Mediterranean island exceeds the renewable energy targets set in the heating and cooling of buildings thanks to the widespread use of the solar thermal technology.
“There are many areas where Cyprus has not met greenhouse gas emission targets,” said Charalampos Theopemptou, the island’s first environment commissioner. “But in terms of renewable energy sources used for the sustainable heating and cooling of buildings, we easily reached the target, precisely because of such extensive use of solar water heaters for so many years.”
Theopemptou, a Green Party MP who heads the Cypriot Parliament’s environment committee, can still vividly remember installing the first solar water heating system on the roof of his wife’s family home almost 60 years ago.
“It was in the late 1960s that the water heaters were introduced to Cyprus, and I can still remember the very first system here because it happened to be set up on the roof of that building in Nicosia,” he recalls. “The Israelis were the ones who introduced the technology to us and it took off quickly because it’s so simple. All you need are solar panels, a tank and copper pipes. Since then it has been a wonderful solution to the hot water needs of households here.”
The solar thermal systems not only collected solar energy as heat – usually generated by electricity and the burning of fossil fuels – they were extremely cost-effective and helped spawn an entire industry, he explains.
“It’s been great for low-income families and then there’s the work: so much has been generated,” says the MP. “There are the local manufacturers who produce the parts and then all the people who are trained to install them. It’s big business.”
In his role as environment commissioner, Theopemptou pushed hard to make solar systems mandatory on all newly constructed residential and commercial buildings – a move Israel had introduced in the 1970s.
“In my role as commissioner it was a priority,” he says. “Architects must now make sure that roofs not only have enough space for the installations, but that they can also bear the weight.”
The popularity of the water heaters is such that a union of local solar thermal industrialists was founded in 1977. Since then, more than 962,564 square meters of “solar power” [panel] collectors” have been installed, the union says.
Increasingly, the country’s vibrant tourist industry has also turned to the green solution with solar-powered hot water systems deployed in, they say, almost 100 percent of hotels.
Electricity has been slow to reach households across Cyprus. It was not until 1903 that electricity was brought to the island by the British colonial government. In 1952, eight years before the country gained independence, its Electricity Authority was finally established. In fact, in remote areas, the solar power systems were often installed on village roofs before the arrival of the power grid.
With most of the network still running on mazut fuel oil or diesel, Cyprus is one of a group of EU countries forced to buy emissions quotas from other member states to meet legal targets – an obligation that amounts to a third of the monthly cost of electricity bills, much to the chagrin of Cypriot households. It has also played a role in homeowners installing solar water heating systems.
For Demetra Asprou, a retired engineer, it is clear that a region blessed with more than 300 days of sunshine a year should embrace solar energy. “It reduces electricity costs, increases the efficiency with which hot water is supplied and is friendly to the environment,” she says. “Why would anyone use other, more traditional means of heating water when just a few hours of sunlight, between 11am and 2pm, is enough for a 200 liter [44-gallon] tank to be filled with hot water that will last 48 hours? On days when there is no sunlight, which is rare, you always have electricity as a backup if needed.”
Asprou, who now lives in her 70s in a Finnish-style log house in the foothills of the Troodos Mountains, a 30-minute drive from Nicosia, was a convert to the thermal system almost 40 years ago.
“Installation costs can be three times higher today, but there are EU-funded grants that the government gives out and within a year it’s all paid off,” she says. “After that you basically have free hot water and see your electricity bills reduced significantly. In a country like Cyprus, it’s a no-brainer.”
Theopemptou accepts that the solar systems have one drawback: they are not good for the skyline. “There’s no way around it, they’re ugly on a roof,” he complains. “If I have one, it is a regret that we have not succeeded in introducing regulations to improve the aesthetics of the installations. That said, I still believe they should be mandated on all buildings across the region, given the large number of days we have sunshine in the Mediterranean.”
