Minister Miriam Dalli announced on Wednesday that the government will invest a maximum of €74 million in renewable energy over 20 years, through a new investment scheme for large-scale renewable energy projects.

The Ministry of Environment, Energy and Enterprise said that the Government will financially support private investors to generate enough renewable energy for around 6,000 households if the allocation is taken in full.

This also means that there will be 10,000 tonnes less carbon dioxide in a year.

During the press conference Dalli, together with the Regulator for Energy and Water Services (REWS), launched a bid for private investors to submit their offers for large-scale renewable energy projects.

This is the second year that the scheme is being launched for renewable energy projects such as solar farms and wind turbines.

The regulator is opening this bid for systems with a capacity starting from 40kWp (kilowatt peak) to a maximum of 1MWp (megawatt peak).

“We are working to increase the sources of renewable energy in our country, which investment will help us strengthen security of supply and diversification in energy generation. This will contribute to new economic opportunities and more green jobs. This complements our country’s vision for a decarbonised economy by 2050,” Dalli said.

The Ministry expressed how these investments will help strengthen their sustainable development goals, including SDG7, SDG9, SDG12 and SDG13.

The Ministry also revealed that a similar project launched last year attracted 36 new projects with systems that are generating renewable energy with a maximum capacity of 10 megawatts.

As a result, the systems will generate enough energy to affect 4,200 homes and it will save 7,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

The Government Notice is providing five Invitations to Bid (ITB) this year for the electricity generated from renewable energy sources of generation from 40kW to less than 200kW, and from 200kW to less than 1mW respectively.

“Each call for the allocation of aid includes a call for each category. The capacity available for the grant, thus calculated, will be published in the ITB document of each respective call. The Government can review the methodology used to calculate the capacities available for the allocation of aid,” CEO of REWS, Marjohn Abela said.

The dates of the ITB are as follows:

Offer 1, from 14 October 2022 till 24 October 2022.
Offer 2, from 4 January 2023 till 12 January 2023.
Offer 3, from 5 April 2023 till 13 April 2023.
Offer 4, from 4 July 2023 till 12 July 2023.
Offer 5, from 3 October till 11 October 2023.