Solar park owners reject Fidias Panayiotou’s electricity price claims

Nicosia, Cyprus. Owners of commercial solar parks have challenged claims by Direct Democracy party leader Fidias Panayiotou that businesses could cut electricity prices by up to 20 per cent while remaining profitable.

Panayiotou had called on President Nikos Christodoulides to intervene over high electricity prices, citing what he described as a large gap between solar generation costs and selling prices.

Claims on generation and sale prices

Panayiotou said solar parks generate electricity at a cost of between 5 and 8 cents per kilowatt-hour, while selling it for between 25 and 30 cents per kilowatt-hour.

He said this difference meant electricity bills could be reduced by as much as 20 per cent.

Association response

The Energy Market Association (EMA) rejected the suggestion that its members earn windfall profits.

It said the claims did not account for operating costs, overheads, the lack of energy storage and frequent curtailments affecting renewable energy production.

According to the EMA, electricity generated by commercial solar parks accounted for 6.4 per cent of total energy traded since the competitive electricity market was launched in 2025.

The association said the average price of this energy was considerably lower than the figures cited by Panayiotou.

Market data

An electricity systems expert said the average price for solar energy sold on the day-ahead market was 14.48 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The expert said a simulation found that imposing a price cap of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour would reduce the weighted average price by 1.8 per cent, rather than the 20 per cent suggested by Panayiotou.

“Mr Panayiotou cannot question the above data with generalities and aphorisms,” the EMA said. “Numbers are answered with numbers, and data with data.”

The association said it had invited Panayiotou to discuss the issue.