Cyprus world leader in solar thermal installations per capita

Cyprus is world leader in solar thermal installations per capita, President of the House of Representatives Marios Karoyian has said.
Addressing Wednesday an event on “Renewable Energy Sources – Present and Future” at the Parliament in the presence of Vice President of the European Parliament Mechtild Rothe, Karoyian noted Cyprus’ contribution to renewable energy sources.
“In Cyprus there is a mass use of solar energy. Cyprus is the number one state worldwide with the highest per capita number of solar collectors’ installations,” he said.
On the same issue, Vice President of the European Parliament Mechtild Rothe said that one of the best examples for solar thermal is Cyprus.
“With 88% of all house having installed solar collectors, Cyprus is the clear European leader in solar thermal, followed by Greece with 65% and Austria with 15%”.
“Cyprus is a solar thermal model for Europe”, Rothe said.
The Cypriot Speaker noted that Cyprus achieved remarkable progress in the past few years regarding renewable sources.
“In 2004 supporting measures to promote renewable sources have been adopted”, he said.
Referring on climate change, Karoyian said that drought which hit Cyprus this year is an example of the rising temperatures on the planet.
“This makes us realize how terrifying the consequences could be, if we do not take precautionary measures”.
In her speech, Vice President of the European Parliament said that the EU’s strategy has to be reducing its dependency on conventional energy sources and increase its efforts to shift to an environmentally economically and socially sustainable energy supply.
“In the EU 27 our import dependency on oil is more than 80%. This represents a matter of concern in terms of energy security. However, dependency on oil represents at the same time a matter of concern in ecological terms”, she noted.
Rothe said that the EU today is world leader in many renewable energy technologies with wind energy being the main reason for this success.
“Changing our energy supply structure we will be able to benefit from greenhouse gas emissions reduction, increased security of supply, job creation, and regional development and export opportunities alike. Already more than 350,000 jobs have been created”, she continued.
Noting that world energy prices are at historically high levels, she went on to say that in part, this is due to rapidly growing demand.
“As globalization succeeds and many emerging economies develop, their demand for energy has increased dramatically. Already in 2030 there will be nine billion people living on our planet. Meanwhile, supplies of traditional sources of energy have not kept up with rising demand”, she concluded.