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.