An overview of renewable energy sources for the Cyprus energy market

The harmonisation of the Republic of Cyprus with the European Union as well as the obligations that stem from the Kyoto agreement call for the liberalisation of the energy sector as well as for the introduction of technologies less harmful to the environment. A survey has been carried out of the currently available renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, biomass, wave and tidal. A preliminary resource assessment was carried out to ascertain the availability of enough resource on the island. Subsequently, various exploitation methods have been considered and their economic viability was determined, emphasising on the electricity grid connection of renewables. Finally, various problems of these implementations were considered, namely social, environmental and technical. The latter, which is of utmost importance for the EAC, was investigated and the need for the establishment of a new technical framework for the implementation of these technologies was demonstrated. Various problems of grid connection of renewables, such as system stability, voltage profiles, losses, reactive power flow and harmonic distortion were hereby addressed.