Malta Feed In Tariff - Feed-in Tariffs

Malta has finally gotten a feed in tariff for solar power. Although this is a positive step, it smells strongly of ineffective policy and inept policy makers.

But, before you read further, please take to heart that these tariffs are targeting the small scale and homeowner markets. Although we believe that Malta can cover much more of its electricity needs with solar power, (particularly during peak hours of energy use), we applaud the small scale policy improvements that this policy brings... And now that the small scale niceties are out of the way, our more critical analysis of the larger scale market may commence.

This article was forwarded to us, and we would like to thank the users of our site for keeping us up to date on market developments. Here is a small excerpt from the article:

"The government said that the advantageous feed in tariffs were being introduced to encourage more people to opt for renewable energy sources.
It said that the new tariffs, combined with the assistance of up to half the cost of a domestic photovoltaic units meant that costs could be recouped within eight years."

I don't know what monkey with an abacus is doing the math for this rate of return, but 8 years is awfully optimistic. And assuming that the government will provide 50% of the cost is ridiculous. The more conservative figure of 11 years is what our math is showing, with an IRR of 8.66%.
These are good numbers by themselves, especially for small scale applications for homeowners.
But with a market cap in place of a paltry 7.5 MWp, don't expect many investors to start salivating.

We are torn on what to rate Malta's efforts at, so lets just say one thumb up, and the other down - the thumb up for enacting a potentially profitable feed in tariff - the other thumb down is for capping your market at such a low level that a midget with no legs has to squat down to see it, not to mention the household cap of 3 kWp sounds like the creation of a clinically insane badger. Fail or Win? You decide.

Any further information, or corrections to our current listing are appreciated in the Contact Us section.

Malta	8 Year Solar Feed in Tariff	7.5 MWp Market cap for 2010
Households	€0,25/kWh	Max 3 kWp
Househlds in Gozo	€0,28/kWh	Max 3 kWp
	7 Year Solar feed in Tariff
Business establishments	€0,20/kWh	Max 100 kWp