Small solar installations provide 74.5% of Cyprus’s solar energy — STUDY

More than 102,000 small solar installations on the rooftops of homes and businesses in Cyprus provide 74.5% of all solar energy fed into the grid, while large commercial photovoltaic parks account for 25.5%. Energy expert Andreas Prokopiou reaches this calculation based on official data from grid operators in an analysis for the CyprusEnergy.News portal.

The Cyprus Transmission System Operator shows the generation mix in real time, but groups all distributed solar generation into a single line. The author broke it down into categories, relying on data from the distribution network operator. On a low-demand day, 10 May 2026, with consumption at 11,037 MWh, conventional generation accounted for 67.3%, wind for 6.6% and solar for 24.1%. On a high-demand day, 25 August, with consumption at 23,551 MWh, the respective figures were 73.0%, 0.9% and 24.9%.

The share of large parks between these days rose from 3.9% to 9.8%, while the share of household systems without remote control fell from 8.8% to 3.7%. At the same time, household installations produced 972 and 876 MWh, almost the same amount: the total volume of consumption changed. When there is excess solar power, generation curtailment is required primarily at large parks.

The settlement mechanisms also differ. The 254 large parks trade on the day-ahead wholesale market, where from 1 October 2025 to 21 August 2026 the weighted average selling price of solar energy was 14.48 euro cents per kWh. Small installations operate outside the market, directly with the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC): under net metering, energy is offset against consumption, while under net billing, surplus power is paid for at a fixed rate of 11 euro cents per kWh.

According to data from the ministry’s energy service for April 2026, net metering accounts for 471.51 MW of installed capacity, or 44.7%, while net billing accounts for 158.27 MW, or 15.0%. The author emphasises that this share of generation does not directly determine the market price but merely reduces daytime demand, and that before discussing a review of solar energy purchase agreements, it is worth understanding what share of generation they actually cover.