Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1547166
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 OCTOBER 2026 NEWS storage more than doubles in 2025 Almost half of renewable en- ergy producers, 48.3%, opted for partial-export arrange- ments, allowing them to priori- tise their own consumption be- fore sending surplus electricity to the grid. By the end of 2025, Malta's installed solar photovoltaic ca- pacity had reached 268.6MWp in direct current terms, equiva- lent to 250.4MW in alternating current nominal capacity. Carbon intensity falls as renewables grow The increased contribution of renewable energy also coincided with a reduction in the carbon intensity of electricity supplied to consumers. The direct emis- sions factor fell by 4.2%, from 380g of carbon dioxide per kWh in 2024 to 364g in 2025. However, renewable energy generated locally and injected into the public grid accounted for only 7.7% of total electricity supplied to end users. At the annual peak in elec- tricity demand, recorded at 636.6MW on 25 July 2025 at 5pm, local fossil fuel generation supplied 52.8% of demand, while electricity imported through the Malta-Italy interconnector ac- counted for 32.7%. Solar photo- voltaic generation contributed 14.6%. Utility-scale batteries planned for Marsa and Delimara Alongside the growth in household storage, InterCon- nect Malta continued prepa- rations for two utility-scale battery energy storage systems planned for Delimara and Mar- sa. The public tender for their engineering, procurement and construction closed in 2025, attracting 16 offers, while the associated EU state aid approval procedure was completed. A 1MW battery storage sys- tem with a capacity of 2MWh, installed at the Xewkija Distri- bution Centre in 2021, also re- mains operational as a research and development facility to test network management and the integration of variable renewa- ble energy. National legislation adopted in 2025 transposed provisions relating to self-consumption, storage and network flexibility under the EU's electricity mar- ket rules. renewable energy producers, the vast majority of whom own rooftop solar systems (File Photo)