Labour MP demands transparency on government PV panel project

Shadow environment minister Leo Brincat has demanded answers to questions raised in the House over a €10 million solar panel project for government buildings.

Brincat said that it was still not known what subsidies or feed-in tariff had been negotiated in the contract with the Alberta-Solarig consortium, and whether these were at variance from those proposed before Budget 2013.

"If there is a power purchasing agreement, the government must control this agreement and publish it immediately," Brincat said. "Government must explain the three-month delay during which this contract was expected to be finalized since it was announced in September."

Brincat also queried whether the agreement takes into consideration the fact that since its original call for expressions of interest, the prices of PV panels had dropped by 60-70% over the last three years.

The Labour MP also said the agreement announced in September was for a generation of 6.5MW, but it had not been scaled down to 4.5 megawatts.

"I expect a clear declaration on this project which is designed to reach the 10% clean energy requirement for 2020, and whether the foreign partners are indeed the same members of the original consortium. This information is required in the name of transparency and good governance, especially since news of the waste of taxpayers' money at WasteServ as uncovered by the Auditor General," Brincat said.

Multinational Solarig yestrerday confirmed an investment of over €10 million in PV installations after signing the concession agreement with the Maltese government for the construction of 4.5MW of photovoltaic installations and the recent creation of a Control & Analysis Centre.

Solarig will develop more than 45 rooftop PV installations (67,000 square metres) on Maltese public buildings, after signing the concession agreement in consortium with a Maltese company, for the technical design, construction and operation of these facilities.

The installations to be developed totalize a capacity of approximately 4.5MW and are located in several government owned buildings, such as ministries, hospitals, reservoirs and schools, which the Maltese government has identified as adequate areas.