Leaders in green renewable energy
Our aim is to provide an alternative, sustainable and ecologically sound energy generation system for Greece and Cyprus.
Solar energy to provide 24-hour electrical power to the Golf project and surrounding areas
Planning and technical discussion is well underway for the creation of a major solar power array to be built near Alassa, just fifteen minutes outside Limassol.
Alpha Panareti owns some 2 million square metres of land above Alassa village and is planning to create a major Golf Resort & Country Club there, with residential properties, sporting facilities and new amenities to benefit the surrounding villages.
This project utilises new Australian-developed technology which has in-built energy storage and will be the first of its type in the Eastern Mediterranean.
It will produce power on a 24 hour basis, sufficient to power the whole of the planned resort and with excess available to be fed into the national power grid.
‘Green’ issues
This system is about as environmentally-friendly as it’s possible for a power generating system to be:
- The system is ‘benign’, in that it does not create any greenhouse emissions or other unwanted waste material from its operation. Even the water is re-circulated via air cooled condensers back to a holding tank for use again through the system.
- It uses no chemicals, unlike other solar-powered systems using batteries or molten salt for storage.
- There is minimal noise from the array, perhaps just a slight hum normally associated with a switch substation and Alpha Panareti will take particular care to ensure that this is placed well away from any existing or new residential property.
- Migratory birds, whether flying, feeding or nesting, are entirely unaffected by solar power arrays (again, unlike wind turbines) and local animal life is completely safe around the heliostats, the towers and the machine room etc.
- The site will, of course, be carefully protected but, should a person stray into the area, they are unlikely to come to any harm. The heliostats reflect the heat, rather than absorbing it, so they are not hot to the touch.
- There are no emissions of any sort, no waste products going into the air or the local water supply, no detrimental effect on people and even the visual impact is low, by comparison with other energy-producing systems.
- The graphite in the thermal storage tanks atop the tower is inert – it cannot explode, fall out of the tank and create fires or otherwise cause any damage.
- All sunlight is captured and beamed directly by the heliostats to the storage tanks. In the unlikely event of a heliostat malfunction, it will ‘stow’ and point to the sky
(The system has been extensively tested for such risks in Australia, a country notable for its bush fires and has been approved as safe by the authorities there.)
- It has been proven over many years that ‘fields’ of solar reflective mirrors have no detrimental effect on pilots flying aircraft above them. The reflected sunlight is angled into the collection tank and then dissipates naturally as it passes on in a straight line. Technically speaking, the heliostats have short focal lengths (up to 40 metres). This means that 80 metres away from the mirror (2 x focal length), there is no longer any concentration of light. The effect for a pilot is similar to that of flying over a lake surface.
It is very important to Alpha Panareti that the system is not only cost-effective and sustainable, but also that it provides the most acceptable solution to the potentially damaging effects on the ecology of other forms of power generation.
Bringing benefits to Cyprus
In general, the production of electrical power is expensive, destructive and unattractive, as well as being notorious for ‘eating up’ irreplaceable natural resources.
Solar power is a natural, 100% sustainable power source that can be harnessed at relatively low cost, compared to building and running of coal-fired or nuclear power stations. It is more cost-effective and less damaging to the environment in the long term than wind-powered energy and far more predictable. With storage, solar power effectively becomes a ‘base load’ plant.
The solar power generation array planned by Alpha Panareti will not only provide power for its own projects, but also a valuable source of infinitely sustainable energy for the island’s central power supply grid.
In addition, much of the construction work of the towers, the tanks and probably even the heliostats will be carried in new factories to be established here in Cyprus, providing long-term employment at all levels of people, from construction workers to skilled craftsmen, project managers and even young electrical and civil engineers who are keen to be at the forefront of sustainable technology.
Leading on from this first array, it is hoped that the Alpha Panareti's solar power generation system will become the model for Mediterranean countries, as the system is simple, safe and ecologically sound. More importantly, its modular form is readily adaptable to the hilly topography of the Mediterranean.
It can be scaled up or down, according to initial requirements, expanded at a later date and will serve a wide variety of electrical power needs, making it suitable for every purpose from powering a manufacturing unit, a small community or a residential project, to providing a permanent, sustainable power source for a national electrical grid.
As a side benefit, the steam it produces could be used for other purposes before condensation and re-circulation – a heat source for a local school or the running of a commercial laundry, for example – so its applications are many and varied.
Alpha Panareti has been appointed as a sole marketing agent for this solar power energy in Cyprus and Greece.