James Debono
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) policy’s of relaxing building heights to encouraging more penthouses is discouraging the use of solar energy because it denies access to rooftops to residents in apartment blocks.
The matter has attracted the concern of both Alternattiva Demokratika and the Malta Labour Party, after guidelines issued back in 2005 allowed penthouses to be built on three-storey blocks, and even a ‘set-back’ third floor on small houses inside town inner cores.
Ralph Cassar, AD spokesperson on Energy, Industry and Transport claimed that a number of people are contacting AD officials saying they are not able to install solar water heaters and are instead forced to use energy-intensive appliances like clothes driers because they have no access to the roof of their apartment block.
“With all the talk of the importance of conserving energy and of encouraging people to make use of equipment which helps them reduce their energy bills we call on the competent authorities to make access to roofs a sine qua non for new building permits.”
AD reiterated proposals on wider access to cleaner forms of energy and called for incentives for photovoltaic panel installation.
Labour’s environment spokesperson Leo Brincat is also encouraging the government to adopt California’s concept of solar rights to Malta. California’s Solar Rights Act, which has been in force for almost 30 years, gives Californians the legal right to use sunlight for energy purposes without obstacles.
Solar rights would act as a safeguard against this sort of situation, Brincat insisted. “If we really want to incentivise the public to make use of solar water heaters, or photovoltaic panels, we must have a wide environmental vision that considers the access required to solar energy so that this apparatus is installed as a civil right that eventually will be protected by law,” Brincat said.
California’s solar rights act enacted in 1978 states that Community Covenants and Restrictions that prohibit or unreasonably restrict the installation or use of solar energy systems are void and unenforceable.
California also recognizes the right of every owner to be able to receive future sunlight. This act even prohibits shading of solar collectors that result from tree growth occurring after a solar collector is installed.
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
