4,000 new solar panels on reservoirs to be offered to families without roofs
The project is expected to generate approximately four million kilowatt hours of clean electricity in its first year
The government is to install 4,000 photovoltaic panels and offer them as a renewable energy investment to families without rooftops.
The panels will be installed on top of WSC reservoirs in a project called Pannelli bla Bejt (Panels without a roof).
Once they are in place, families who do not have access to a roof will be invited to invest in the installation. Around 500 will have the opportunity to share in the income they generate, Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said.
“Every project we complete and every panel we install brings us closer to a cleaner energy mix that can help us decarbonise our economy. We continue to increase our solar capacity and continue to work on various renewable energy projects, propelling our transition towards a cleaner power system,” Dalli stated, referencing other installations already completed by the WSC at Fiddien, Qrendi, Ċenċ, Ta’ Qali, Bulebel, Ċirkewwa, Lapsi and Pembroke.
The new project is expected to generate approximately four million kilowatt hours of clean electricity in its first year, equivalent to a reduction of around 1,500 tonnes of carbon emissions annually. The Water Services Corporation is committing €3 million in capital investment to prepare the infrastructure across the ten sites, with a further €2 million earmarked for installing the panels in the final phase of the project.
Participating households will be required to make a one-off investment of €6,000, securing an allocation of eight photovoltaic panels with an estimated annual output of 7,500 kWh. Each participating family is projected to receive an average income of €840 per year, generating a total cash inflow of €16,788 over a twenty-year period, the Energy Ministry said.
The model delivers a payback period of around seven years and a projected internal rate of return of approximately 13%. Final return figures will be confirmed once the feed-in tariff allocation is confirmed.
WSC CEO Karl Cilia stressed that participation carries no operational burden, explaining that “once a family invests, WSC will handle everything, the site, the build, the grid connection, the maintenance, the monitoring and the revenue”.
The public call for families interested in investing will be issued once the panels are ready for installation.
All details can be accessed on pannelliblabejt.com