Parliament’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee meets on Tuesday to examine how a new ban on commercial renewable energy installations is being applied to solar parks on fertile farmland and in land consolidation areas. Under a planning circular, applications filed by 8 February and found complete will be assessed under the previous rules.
The circular
Hundreds of planning applications submitted to the District Local Government Organisations (DLGOs) and the Department of Town Planning and Housing before the amending law was published raised serious questions over how they should be handled.
The director of the Department of Town Planning and Housing sent the circular on 5 August 2026, following an opinion from the Attorney General. It went to the directors-general of the DLGOs in Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and Famagusta.
Applications submitted by 8 February 2026 and deemed complete, with all the required information, will be assessed under the previous legal framework. That date is at least three months before the law was published. Applications submitted after 8 February 2026, or that were incomplete through the applicant’s fault, will be assessed strictly under the new rules.
In a letter on 25 August 2026, the Environmental Authority said it would not carry out an environmental assessment of applications submitted after 8 February 2026 unless it was first satisfied that they met the provisions of the new law and Planning Authority Order No. 1/2024.
The law
The Promotion and Encouragement of the Use of Renewable Energy Sources (Amendment) Law of 2026 was published in the Official Gazette on 5 May 2026. It bans commercial renewable energy installations on fertile or permanently irrigated land; on land within irrigated, dry or mixed land consolidation schemes or areas irrigated by government projects; in planning protection zones; and in Natura 2000 areas, Sites of Community Importance, Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas.
Terra Cypria
In a position paper to the committee, the environmental organisation Terra Cypria proposed that the Department of Town Planning and Housing and the DLGOs give parliament a full, detailed list of all pending renewable energy applications submitted before 5 May 2026.
Terra Cypria said that under the Policy Statement for the Countryside in force and earlier guidelines, namely a 2022 Environmental Authority opinion and Planning Authority Order No. 1/2024, there was already a presumption against renewable energy projects on fertile and irrigated farmland, in land consolidation areas and in planning protection zones, while such projects were already banned in Natura 2000 areas.
It argued that when assessing older applications submitted before 8 February 2026, the authorities should take into account the need to protect irreplaceable natural resources and reject projects on such land.
