This year's Cyprus Energy Symposium was held on December 15 and took the form of a hybrid event with the local organizers assembled in a conference room in Nicosia but almost all participants attending online. Despite these obstructive conditions the Symposium was conducted smoothly with a total of 16 speakers and more than 150 attendees. The Symposium was jointly organized by IENE and FMW -Financial Media Way, a Cyprus based advertising and publishing company.
Costis Stambolis, Chairman and Executive Director of IENE and Iosif Iosif ,the CEO of Financial Media Way, contributed opening remarks at the start of the Symposium. The Chairman of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KEBE), under whose auspices the Symposium was organized, welcomed the opportunity presented by this year's event to help further investment and business activity in the broad energy sector.
Opening the Symposium the President of the Republic of Cyprus Mr.Nikos Anastasiadis expressed his optimism that the present pandemic will eventually be overcome and the country's ambitious hydrocarbon exploration programme, which was seriously interrupted due to the coronavirus mitigation measures, will resume as originally planned. President Anastasiadis made reference to detailed discussions which recently took place with all major companies involved in the above programme which reassured the government of Cyprus of their continuous commitment. Furthermore the President of Cyprus stressed the importance of the energy sector in the economic and social developing and underlined the key role that the Eurasia Interconnector will play in connecting the electricity grid of Cyprusto those of Israel and Greece thus ending the energy isolation of the island.
"The introduction of natural gas by means of imported LNG in two years from now will further enhance Cyprus's energy security", noted Anastasiadis. He then went one to describe the consistent efforts made over the last years by government and private sector to develop further Renewable Energy Sources (RES), especially solar photovoltaics,solar thermal and wind which between them cover 15% of the gross final consumption, way above the agreed with the EU targets for 2020. With RES contributing only 10% of electricity generation, President Anastasiadis observed that there we have substantial growth potential with Cyprus being ideally placed to take advantage of high solar radiation and offering high returns to investors.
TheChairman of the Cyprus Energy Authority, Dr. Andreas Poullikkas, expanded on Cyprus's present energy system and the prospects which lie ahead for its transformation, by means of clean energy technologies, as the drive towards lower GHG emissions intensifies and the country has entered into an Energy Transition path. Other speakers included, Dr. Dimitris Fessas, Acting General Manager at Cyprus Hydrocarbons Company, Mr. Thanos Patrikis, Commercial Director at VTT Vasiliko Limited, Mr. Dimitris Mezartasoglou, Head or Research at IENE, Mr. George Chrysochos, CEO at Powerenergy Cyprus (PEC), Ms. Anthi Charalambous, Director of Energy & Environment at Cyprus Employers & Industrialists Federation (OEB), Mr. Fanos Karantonis, Chairman at Cyprus Association of Renewable Energy Enterprises (SEAPEK) and Mr. Christos Tsingis, Executive Director of the Cyprus Wind Energy Association.
The last session of this highly focused Symposium covered energy efficiency and RES and was moderated by Mr. Costas Theofylactos, a partner of the Institute who also chairs IENE's Energy Efficiency Committee.Once again the Cyprus Energy Symposium provided the opportunity to review progress in all facets of the island's vibrant energy sector but also discuss the challenges faced by the different players in this particular time juncture.
You can see the whole conference on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o_-NdlEXEE
