Gaffarena applies for massive Handaq solar farm

Property developer Mark Gaffarena has applied to set up 3,332 photovoltaic panels on 11,060sq.m of agricultural land located in the Tal-Handaq area of Qormi, exploiting a policy loophole which left the development of solar panels set on greenhouses unregulated.

The solar panels will be set up on 4m-high greenhouses.

The 29,000sq.m plot where the solar farm is being proposed is adjacent to the 10,000sq.m plot which was part of the controversial and illegal €1.65 million cash-and-land deal the government made with Gaffarena in exchange for a 50% share in an Old Mint Street, Valletta property in 2015. The expropriation is now being challenged in court by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

This very same plot in Handaq has now been earmarked for an agritourism project.

While the policy regulating solar farms bans solar farms located in the open countryside by limiting them to disused quarries, this ban is being circumvented through proposals for solar greenhouses over substantial land parcels.

Prior to the approval of this policy, the PA had already approved solar panels on 11,500sq.m of agricultural land at Fiddien in Rabat. The PA is also assessing another solar greenhouse developments: a 9,860sq.m development in Ta’ Lelluxa in Ghajnsielem along the Mgarr road.  
Meanwhile the PA has refused solar greenhouses on agricultural land on the scenic Munxar promontory in Marsaskala.