Malas calls on Cyprus to develop renewable energy and energy storage — Cyprus Mail
Stavros Malas, president of the Cyprus Institute, said in Cyprus that neither diesel fuel nor natural gas can be a long-term solution to the country’s energy needs. Cyprus Mail reports that he stressed the need to simultaneously develop renewable energy and sustainable energy storage technologies.
The need for energy storage
Malas spoke during a visit by Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Nicodemos Damianou to the Cyprus Institute’s PROTEAS research complex in Pentakomo. According to him, for a geographically isolated island, not only cleaner ways of generating electricity are important, but also viable long-term methods of storing it.
The energy transition must be planned now so that Cyprus does not remain a country with very expensive electricity, Malas said. He described PROTEAS as an example of what he believes Cyprus should be.
For his part, Damianou described the complex as an example of the country Cyprus seeks to become: a place for testing advanced technologies and developing innovative solutions that can be applied more widely. He said the facility demonstrates Cyprus’s potential not only to be an energy consumer, but also to attract innovative companies that create solutions for the energy sector.
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Research into solar technologies
During the visit, Damianou toured the facility and learned about the laboratory’s work, including research related to combating climate change. He was accompanied by Constantinos Kleovoulou, director of research and innovation at the deputy ministry.
PROTEAS is the Cyprus Institute’s experimental platform for researching and demonstrating renewable energy technologies. Its main focus is on concentrated solar thermal energy and energy storage. The complex in Pentakomo makes it possible to develop and test solar technologies in Cyprus’s climatic conditions for further use on the island and in other regions with high solar potential.
The institute also noted that solar thermal energy research has attracted the attention of companies. Some of them use heliostats at the PROTEAS site to support research and innovation.
