1 Conference on the promotion of Distributed Renewable Energy Sources in the Mediterranean region 11-12 December 2009, Nicosia, Cyprus (Paper ref No: 107) Benefits of using Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and energy saving techniques in the small community of Polystypos - Cyprus Anthi Charalambous, Savvas Vlachos and Maria Ioannidou communities are also important. Using RES and by increasing the effort for energy saving in households in small Abstract-- This paper examines the energy situation in a rural and diverse communities contributes also to the small rural community of Cyprus – Polystypos – which is decrease of the transmission losses and to the decentralized located at Nicosia district with population of less than 200 energy production. inhabitants and altitude of 1150 meters. For the needs of this study, 3 different types of questionnaire were prepared and a A. Targets of the present research survey was carried out by personal interviews door to door (see Appendices A, B, C). The present research, aims to: Based on information collected during the survey, • Activate local self-government attendance on energy qualitative results are presented but also results on current planning issues. situation and energy demand. This paper aims also to present the energy, environmental and economic benefits of further • Inform residents of the community about RES and penetration of renewables and energy saving techniques to energy saving. community’s households and public assets through the • Concentrate information about the resident’s knowledge examination of 4 different scenarios . on energy issues, the structural characteristics of Index Terms buildings in the community, the household’s energy Cyprus Communities, Polystypos, Solar Energy in Cyprus, requirements, and the community social and economic energy consumption, renewables, energy saving, survey character. (qualitative and quantitative), Cost/benefit analysis, scenarios, environment • Extract conclusions on the final energy consumption in the community, the RES contribution in the local energy I. INTRODUCTION balance, and the environmental behaviour of residents. YPRUS is a small country with no electricity • Examine the potential of RES technologies installation in Cinterconnections and depends almost totally on oil the community. products imports (apx 96%). The penetration of • Estimate the energy and environmental benefits as a renewables is still very low, however the utilization of solar result of applying energy saving measures and RES energy for water heating is very high. Cyprus is the first utilisation. country in the EU-27 [1] with 802.9 m2 solar collectors/1000 inhabitants. B. The Cyprus Communities • The share of RES in the final energy consumption was Two types of Local Self-government Authorities exist in of 2.4% in 2008 (with important contribution of solar Cyprus. The Communities Councils and the Municipalities. thermal for water heating). The Communities Councils and the Communities Clusters 2 • The share of RES electricity generation was 0.2 % at the are enumerated in 355 (non occupied communities ), end of 2008 (from PV and biomass). represent approximately the 42% of population and the 90% of the territorial area of Cyprus. • The share of biofuels in the transport sector in 2008 is The local authorities have rural, tourist or industrial appreciated in 0.9% [2]. character and are scattered in mountainous, flat and seaside Cyprus has to increase the effort and the support to all areas of Cyprus. viable RES technologies to reach the 2010 targets (although The number of Community Councils (non-occupied) per is still far to achieve by 2010). Province are: Besides the pure energy benefits, the environmental, Nicosia 96 economic and social benefits of using RES and energy Lemesos 106 saving techniques in the residential sector in small Larnaka 48 Paphos 99 Anthi Charalambous is director of the Cyprus Energy Agency Famagusta 6 Savvas Vlahos is energy specialist of the Cyprus Energy Agency Maria Ioannidou is energy administrator of the Cyprus Energy Agency 2 Turkish Occupation of the North part of the island since 1974. 2 The population of Cyprus Communities according to the TABLE II inventory of 2001 [3] amounts in the 229.109 (two hundred AGRICULTURE ACTIVITIES IN POLYSTYPOS Exploitations and used Area Num.of expl. twenty nine thousands hundred nine) presenting increase agricultural areas by type (hectares) (≈13%) concerning the population 1991 that was 201.626 Total 68 969 Mixed (two hundred one thousands six hundred twenty six). 7 113 The population of Communities (non-occupied) per (Agricultural and veterinary surgeon) Purely Agricultural 61 855 Province is: Nicosia 75.768 Area Num. of expl. Lemesos 52.783 Areas by type exploitations (hectares) Larnaka 51.864 Annual cultures 30 14 Tree cultures 68 560 Paphos 29.683 Vines 66 395 Famagusta 19.011 The 35 communities out of 355 are located of altitude II. SOLAR ENERGY from 500 to 600 m that corresponds in population of 5.857 Solar energy use in Cyprus is very promising due to the inhabitants. Moreover, 100 communities with total fact that all the country’s regions have long periods of population of 22.105 inhabitants are found in altitude greater sunlight in comparison with many other countries. than 600 m. This is to prove that an important number of For the entire summer period, on average, the duration of population lives in mountainous communities of Cyprus. sunlight is 11.5 hours, while during the winter months of The energy requirements of the mountainous regions differ December and January, the cloudiest months, the period of from those of urban areas. This is due to different needs of sunlight decreases to 5.5 hours per day. heating and cooling between mountainous and urban areas. Even in the upper regions of “Troodos’’, in the winter C. Polystypos months, the mean sunlight is about 4 hours per day, and in Polystypos is a mountainous community of Nicosia the months of June and July this value reaches 11 hours. Province that is located at altitude of 1150 meters. The Maximum sunlight (that is, the period from sunrise to distance from Nicosia centre is 52 km and is near to sunset) fluctuates from 9,8 hours per day in December to communities of Alona, Agros, Alithinou, Livadia, Chandria 14,5 hours per day in June [4]. and Agridia. A. Solar heating systems The community has 169 permanent inhabitants, 84 The use of solar energy in Cyprus is achieved mainly households of permanent stay and 120 non permanent. through the installation of solar water heaters on the roofs of Polystypos can be characterized as a very small rural buildings and houses. The solar thermal water heaters have community, with small number of permanent inhabitants and been widely applied in Cyprus since 1956. the total area does not exceed the 240 hectares. Today, 92% of households and 53% of hotels in Cyprus Tables I and II provide some statistical data on the provide most of their hot water from the exploitation of solar economic activities in the community of Polystypos [3]. radiation. Usually the systems are installed per household, have surface 3,8 m 2 solar collectors and 160 Lt hot water TABLE I ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN POLYSTYPOS tank. The total installed area in 2007 was estimated at 625.200 m 2. Manufacturing Industries 2 Wholesale and retail trade 3 B. Photovoltaic systems Hotels and Restaurants 6 In the recent 5 years, a remarkable increase in the Transports, storage and communications 1 installation of photovoltaic systems has been detected. Intermediary credit organisms 1 Despite the initial high cost and the long payback period, the installation of small photovoltaic systems (up to 5kW) in Management of properties 0 Public administration and defence, Obligatory social households and small industries is economically beneficial, insurance 1 taking into consideration the subsidies and grants provided Activities of benefit of services 1 by the government. In Cyprus, the first Photovoltaic System grid connected Private households that occupy domestic personnel 1 with capacity of 484 KW was installed on 17/02/2005. The Total 16 total electricity production from photovoltaics connected to the grid from February 2005 to February 2009 amounted to 3.166.258 kWh [5]. Particularly, only for the year 2008, the total electricity generation from grid connected photovoltaics was 1.636.867 kWh. The total installed capacity of photovoltaic systems connected to the distribution system of Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) was 1,787 MW at the end of February 2009 [5]. The total installed capacity of autonomous photovoltaic systems (not connected to the electricity grid) according to the Energy Service (by the end of 2008) 3 amounted to 0,605 MW. Therefore, the total installed C. Results evaluation capacity for photovoltaics in Cyprus, until February 2009, A database was created to keep the data collected. The was 2,392 MW. information was screened, classified and assessed. In conclusion, it is estimated that the electricity produced Furthermore, different scenarios were developed in order from photovoltaics (grid connected and autonomous PVs) to evaluate the possibilities for the installation of RES for the year 2008 was 2.250.000 kWh. systems in the community and the energy saving were also examined. Finally a financial analysis was carried out for the different scenarios. III. METHODOLOGY The methodology followed for the achievement of the objectives of this study was the following: IV. QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS • Preparation of a general questionnaire on the energy consumption in the community’s public assets. The A. General Questionnaire President of the community’s council was interviewed The general questionnaire aimed to identify the level of (Appendix A). knowledge and familiarity of the Polystypos inhabitants on • Preparation of a questionnaire to gather qualitative energy and environment issues. information on how informed are the inhabitants on Furthermore, the average annual income per household in RES and energy saving. The permanent inhabitants Polystypos was appreciated roughly at 16.000 €.