page_title: Energy in Malta
section_title: Solar power
hierarchical_section_title: Energy in Malta / Renewable energy / Solar power
caption_attribution_description: English: Global Horizontal Irradiation of Malta
context_page_description: Energy in Malta describes energy production, consumption and import in Malta. Malta has no domestic resource of fossil fuels and no gas distribution network, and relies overwhelmingly on imports of fossil fuels and electricity to cover its energy needs. Since 2015, the Malta–Sicily interconnector allows Malta to be connected to the European power grid and import a significant share of its electricity.
  At 4.9%, Malta had the lowest share of renewables as part of gross inland energy consumption in the EU in 2017.
  The specific needs of Malta as an island state with regards to energy policy are recognised in EU law. In particular, Malta has unique automatic derogations from Articles 9, 26, 32 and 33 of the Electricity Directive 2009/72/EC.
  The energy intensity of Malta was 85.3 kg of oil equivalent per €1,000 of GDP 2017, which is relatively low compared to other EU countries.
  Final energy consumption was 495 ktoe in 2017. Transport accounted for the largest share of this final energy consumption, at 209 ktoe, followed by services at 126 ktoe, households at 94 ktoe and industry at 57 ktoe.
context_section_description: Power generation from photovoltaic (PV) solar cells is increasing in Malta, with total kWp (kilowatt peak) capacity growing by 16.9% from 2017 to 2018. Domestic rooftop installations account for the overwhelming majority of PV installations, and hold 52.1% of total kWp capacity. As of December 2019, EU-funded government grants allowed households to reclaim 50% of the installation costs up to a value of €2,300 from the government. Grants for rooftop solar water heaters, which are popular in Malta, as well as solar feed-in tariffs are also available.
  In October 2017, the Maltese Planning Authority approved the 'Solar Farm Policy', aimed at providing appropriate criteria for potential future utility-scale solar farm developments with minimal negative impacts on the landscape, particularly targeting disused quarries, car parks, industrial areas and large rooftops. Since then, multiple utility-scale solar farms been proposed to the planning authority. A 8,000 panel site has been approved at a disused landfill site near Birżebbuġa in February 2019.
  A 2018 pilot project led by MCAST was conducted to investigate the potential of floating off-shore solar farms to provide energy for Malta.
caption: Solar potential of Malta
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