Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1544871
The following are excerpts from the interview. The full interview can be found on maltatoday. com.mt as well as our Facebook and Spotify pages. PHOTOS: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTA TODAY 7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 MAY 2026 INTERVIEW One of your main pledges for the energy sector is the installation of solar panels on government buildings. Do you have a study showing the space available for this to be carried out? We are not inventing the wheel, but going for the most abundant natural source available to us—the sun. It is not the first time that you are landing on an airplane and as you are looking through the window you think to yourself why do we not have more solar panels? We thought a lot about this. We are not only talking about buildings. We are talking about parking areas, terminals, spaces which can be used better. It happens regularly that you go somewhere and you leave your car and return to it baking in the sun. If we install panels at similar places, the country not only moves closer towards its renewables targets, but is using clean energy at a cheaper price, and providing practical solutions. Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the project would need 2 million square metres of space for it to work. I know you will tell me about the technology's efficiency, but do you have a study to back up your pledge? Labour is doing its math wrong. There isn't the need for that much space. Today's solar panels have more than double the efficiency solar panels had in 2013. There is also less space needed between one panel and the other. Unfortunately, Labour is still stuck in 2013 in how it views the sector. We need less than half of what Muscat said, and that space is available. So, we are talking about one million square metres. Yes, roughly that size. Another proposal is to remove meter charges. Will it be only for electricity meters, or also water meters? Electricity meters only. We wanted to offset electricity expenses through this measure. It Is easy to come here and say we will also remove water meter charges, but that is the politics of auctioning exaggerated pledges, and we do not want to do that. That is how Labour does politics, and that only serves to increase the country's debt. We want to promote a vision, not exaggerated proposals as long as we win the election. […] We have proposed doable measures, but that still make an impact. A football club spoke to me telling me our meter pledge will save them €2,000 a year; a band club told me they would save €1,600 a year; a cow farmer told me he would save €4,500 a year. Renewable energy while clean, suffers from intermittency problems. There is an ongoing tendering process for battery storage. Will it be enough for the project you are pledging? There is currently an ongoing tendering process for storage in Delimara, and another one in Marsa. We want to increase the available battery storage, but not only at these centres. We want to install batteries close to where we will install the solar panels, as well as near distribution centres and substations. We want to do this so that during peak hours, instead of loading the network by extracting energy from power stations, we use the batteries and ease the load. We also want to increase home batteries, as that also helps ease the pressure on the distribution network. We know the summers we spent in the darkness and heat because of deficiencies in the distribution network, with generators outside people's homes. We do not want a repeat of that. Speaking of distribution, during the infamous power cuts, you had spoken about liberalising distribution. Do you still believe it should be liberalised, or will you be seeking an extension to the EU derogation? That is a derogation which expires next year, and we still don't know what government is doing to extend it. We still have one derogation left until 2035, which in the current circumstances where government has not laid the ground work for liberalising, it would be very bad not to extend it. The regulator is not strong, does not defend the consumer, does not take stands when operators fall short of their responsibility. In this context God forbid we have more operators without a strong regulator, as we would have a disaster. I hope government is working towards getting that derogation, because even it knows that this cannot go on forever. You spoke on reduced energy costs of around 30%. In the current geo-political context, how wise is it to pledge such a big reduction in costs? This context shows you exactly how important it is to invest in this renewable technology to shield the country from these international impacts. What is not wise is knowing the gas contract will expire [in August]… and three months before it expires, a deal has not yet been secured. The government does not know at what price it will buy gas this year. To be fair last week Miriam Dalli told me government will be seeking a short-term deal, as by 2027 LNG availability will be much higher, and so the administration would be able to negotiate a better deal… That just confirms government's irresponsibility in not negotiating a better deal when two years ago prices were much better and more stable. When you are at the end of the contract, your negotiating position is much weaker. That confirms the management by crisis leadership of the government, and I don't want that anymore for the country. Labour and government criticise your position on subsidies. In the context of an election, we speak about legislatures. Will you retain subsidies, if elected into gov- ernment, until the end of the legislature? We will retain them until they are needed. We have to, if we want to lower bills. Today, with the pledge we have made to reduce bills by 30%, it is obvious we will retain subsidies, and if needed, pay even more. What we are saying is that through the project we have promised, by the end of it, we will need less subsidies without increasing pressures on people. If oil and gas prices rise again, at least 5% more renewables will be available for energy regeneration. We are also committed to continue working on good projects being implemented by government right now like the offshore floating windfarm. You were in the front line in anti-corruption protests over the past years, but we have seen little mention of the issue during the campaign. Have you side-lined the issue because it is a vote-loser for you? No, the reality is people are not convinced of your vision for the future by showing how corrupt others are. People out there know Labour is corrupt. Even Labourites, when you speak to them concede this. Former minister Joe Debono Grech admitted this himself, and so I do not need to convince people out there how corrupt Labour is. In this context we remain committed to improving the country's standards and laying out our vision.