According to a paper published at the 10th Mediterranean
Electrotechnical Conference, 2000, the generating cost of renewable
energy in Cyprus per kWh (in CYP where 1 CYP is currently about USD 1.6)
is as follows:
Wind, at the most favourable site, 0.036
Solar, 0.22
Biomass, 0.032-0.052
For comparison, current (no pun intended) production using HFO is
0.0374.

This does not include socio-economic factors, grid strengthening,
environmental effects, etc., just the raw cost of generation, including
amortisation of the equipment. Geothermal, hydroelectricity and tidal
energies are unexploitable. From these figures alone, it would appear
that wind farms would be competitive, but the most favourable site would
produce energy for a load factor of only 22.9%.

What is interesting is that Cyprus, with a climate not too dissimilar
from that of a radius drawn inland over a 50 km radius around San Diego
(ie., a mix of sea, mountains, semi-desertic, garrigue and chapparal,
fertile valleys, vast orange groves, sun of ~320 days/year) is so
expensive for solar PV generation. This is partly due to the cost of the
panels and inverters but also because, for some unknown reason, the sun
does not appear to shine at night :-) and that, in winter, the incident
angle is rather low with quite short useful days.

Brian

The paper is entitled "An overview of renewable energy sources for the
Cyprus energy market" by A. Papantoniou.