Maltese solar energy schemes save €7 million annually

Despite a hefty initial financial outlay, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi told the Maltese Parliament on Monday that the use of photovoltaic cells in solar panels led to a saving of €7 million annually in the demand for electricity supply across the country.

Importantly, the use of photovoltaic cells was one of the renewable energy schemes launched by the government through EU funds and taxation. The government had made investments in renewable energy in 21 different localities.

The statement was made by Dr Gonzi after being asked questions by opposition members George Vella, Leo Brincat and Alfred Sant with regard to last months EU summit which discussed the Europa 2020 initiative and the Copenhagen climate change summit.

Dr Gonzi also agreed that the UN would need to play an important role in future climate change negotiations adding that in Bonn, Germany, EU leaders would need to try and reach a unified position so that a step forward on the Kyoto protocol could be made.

Dr Gonzi expressed pleasure that Malta had implemented many of its programmes relating to increases in participation employment rates for different categories and that the Europa strategy would be key to this and would be attainable.

The main target laid out by the EU was to target and curb poverty. Pointing out that European statistics on people at risk of poverty were different from people living in actual poverty, Dr Gonzi said that the social net in Malta contributed to decreasing the amount of people living in the risk of poverty by 50 percent.

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