The Town Planning and Housing Department rejected the construction of a 26MW solar park with 16MW/32MWh storage units in the Alektoras community of Limassol district, issuing four planning permit refusal notices for the corresponding applications by L.E. Evergreen Energy Ltd.
Despite the fact that the Environment Department initially issued a positive opinion on 4 July 2025, it subsequently recommended that the project should not proceed since its connection to the electricity grid has not yet been designed and the environmental impacts of the necessary infrastructure have not been examined.
The Environmental Impact Assessment Study was submitted in 2023 and examined in two sessions of the Environmental Impact Assessment Committee in January and March 2025.
Despite objections from important bodies, including the Town Planning and Housing Department, the Scientific and Technical Chamber of Cyprus, the Cyprus Federation of Environmental Organisations, Terra Cypria and BirdLife Cyprus, the Environment Department ultimately issued a positive opinion, subject to conditions.
However, in a letter dated 21 July 2025 to the Town Planning Department, the Environment Department acknowledged the weaknesses of the process and recommended suspension of licensing until the grid connection design is completed and the consequent environmental impacts are assessed.
According to the letter, existing substations in the area are saturated and require upgrading for the project’s connection. At the same time, the Environment Department underlined the need to examine each renewable energy project in its entirety, together with connection infrastructure and not in isolation from it.
Specifically, the Environmental Authority addressing the Town Planning Department stated that the Distribution System Operator informed that “at the present stage the connection route for the project cannot be determined precisely and that the existing substations in the area are saturated whilst their upgrading is required for the project’s connection to be possible”.
Also in the opinion’s covering letter, it is noted that its issuance does not prejudge the Environmental Authority’s positive view on any design of the project’s connection infrastructure routing to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus distribution network, or with any distribution network expansion needs beyond the boundaries of the project’s plots.
The Town Planning Department, which is the competent authority for the interpretation and implementation of the Interior Minister’s Order 1/2024, which sets the siting criteria for renewable energy projects, ruled that the project’s location does not meet the required spatial planning and town planning criteria.
Specifically, the project is proposed to be built on plots of high agricultural value, irrigated, flat and cultivated with systematic plantations, in an area that falls within Town Planning Protection Zones Z1 and Z3 and is characterised as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Also included are exclusion areas and sub-areas for case-by-case examination, according to the Order.
Therefore, on 3 September 2025, the director of the Town Planning Department, as the competent Town Planning Authority, issued four related planning permit refusal notices.
According to information from the Environment Department, the application should have been rejected from the outset, without reaching the Environment Department for an opinion.
Controversial environmental approval
The Environmental Authority’s opinion came under fire from environmental organisations Terra Cypria and BirdLife Cyprus, which filed an objection, characterising it as problematic and inadequately reasoned.
As they note, the Environmental Impact Assessment Committee’s recommendations were not taken into account, whilst the Environmental Authority’s summary note failed to document how the public consultation results were incorporated.
In Terra Cypria’s report, it is highlighted that on the project’s siting plots there are 5,755 olive trees, 2,187 citrus trees and 6,500 cypress trees around the perimeter.
The 2,187 citrus trees were illegally cut down before the examination of the proposed project and the issuance of environmental approval.
The project is expected to cause permanent loss of fertile and irrigated agricultural land, degradation of the landscape and the area’s rural character, disturbance to protected fauna and bird species such as the Egyptian fruit bat and the Lesser Kestrel, as well as cumulative impacts from further alteration of the area, in combination with other projects sited in it.
Parliamentary reactions
The issue is expected to be discussed at the parliamentary Interior Committee on 16 October 2025, following a proposal by MP Panicos Leonidou for ex officio examination of the matter.
The occasion for registering the issue was the impending uprooting of centuries-old cypress and olive trees and the potential violation of town planning legislation.
New protocol for renewable energy applications
It is noteworthy that, following the experience with the Alektoras case, the Environment Department required that from 1 May 2025, every new application for a renewable energy project sent to the Environmental Authority must be accompanied by a certificate of compliance with Order 1/2024. Without it, the application is considered incomplete and is not examined.
The Alektoras solar park case highlights the need for strict implementation of town planning and environmental frameworks before approvals are granted for large energy projects, even when they fall within the framework of the green transition.
The harmonious coexistence of renewable energy with the protection of agricultural land, landscape and biodiversity appears to remain a challenge for the public administration.
