I would like to build on the story ‘No further subsidies on PV panels this year’, published on Tuesday’s issue of The Malta Independent.

Someone simply needs to be held politically responsible for the years in which we were merely presented with various draft studies on renewables which were crystallised only recently.

The lethargy which Government has shown in the renewables sector is only absent when it comes to signing suspicious contracts such as that with BWSC for the Delimara Power Plant extension – an issue that raised concerns by the EU Commission identical to those expressed earlier by the PL itself.

Meanwhile Government’s reluctance to publish its official response to the EU on the matter definitely dwarfs any positive initiatives that Government might have taken or may be contemplating in the area of renewables.

Unless the massive overhaul envisaged for the power generation sector comes into place, I fear that the 10-per-cent renewable energy target will continue to elude us. That is unless Government goes massively for something that is potentially a health hazard – incineration – to compensate for shortfalls in the achievement of our solar and wind energy objectives.

Rather than merely claiming that the take-up of solar water heaters is still low I stated that we cannot comprehend why we have fallen so far behind in this area, as the poor take-up this year has evidently shown.

In quotes I gave this newspaper in view of the said article, when referring to the lack of synergy between Enemalta and the MRA, I made it clear that it was often bogging down the process underway.

Despite the huge amounts spent in buying expertise at a consultancy level, the MRRA and the MRA were not able to issue the original PV subsidy scheme in a manner that would have made fraud difficult.  All we needed to do was to emulate the successful and time-proven schemes adopted elsewhere. But alas, even here, the Maltese government has failed.

In spite of our horrific oil import bill I have the nagging feeling that some people simply prefer seeing our dependence on oil sustained, regardless of the consequent impact of such dependence on the economy – for reasons best not commented upon.

I have had criticism from various suppliers that the FiT – feed-in tariff – has been limited to 7.5mw while it is still unclear to many field operators whether it is going to be linked strictly to the power generated or only to what is going to be produced in excess and fed into the grid.

At the end of the day, whether we will succeed or not in achieving our targets will not be determined by us politicians but by the EU itself which has set rigorous targets. That will soon show whether the government’s action plan is realistic or over-optimistic. I also mentioned that our target of 10 per cent by 2020 for renewables is the lowest in the whole EU because of our miserable performance so far.

We also stand to be judged on the basis of our interim periodic performances which can also lead to our hands being forced by the EU to not only pay certain penalties  until we put our house in order, but also to review anew our action plan to make sure that we can reassure the EU that we will remain on track, particularly if the results achieved fail to match the projections that we ourselves made only a few weeks ago.

Rather than merely talking of energy saving, I look forward to the right mix being achieved in the renewables sector, with an equal firm commitment towards the enhancement of energy efficiency as well as measures that will see us address head-on the stiff challenges of the impact of climate change on Malta, which is now beyond discussion.

Leo Brincat MP

Shadow Minister for the Environment

St Julian’s