Malta’s energy minister warns: The energy crisis isn’t over

In an interview with Euractiv, the Maltese energy minister warned against considering the European energy crisis over and laid out a vision of her island nation becoming the power connection between Europe and North Africa.

Miriam Dalli, the energy minister of Malta – a tiny island in the Mediterranean and the EU’s smallest member – spoke to Euractiv on the sidelines of the annual Abu Dhabi summit of IRENA, the renewable energy agency.

“The energy crisis isn’t over, prices remain higher than they were pre-COVID and markets are still very volatile,” warned Dalli. 

Rapid price infection

Despite Malta’s geographical isolation, a surge in gas prices rapidly infected power prices even in the Mediterranean during Europe’s 2022 gas crisis.

“While LNG prices [the island’s main source of power generation] were quite stable due to a long-term contract” the connection to Italy where “20% of our electricity” comes from, ensured that “when prices in continental Europe surged, so did ours”.

When prices went from “€0.12 per kilowatt-hour to €0.80” EU energy ministers began seeing a lot more of each other. “I think there were times when we were meeting even more than once a month, sometimes every two weeks, informally and formally,” recalled Dalli.

Malta, along with island states Cyprus and Ireland, had its own challenges: “Not all solutions that work for other countries work for islands, and we drove this point home.” 

For Valletta, the island nation’s greatest strength – a 200 MW interconnector to Sicily that will be doubled by 2025 – has at times become Malta’s biggest weakness.

“That’s one-third of our peak power demand and an outage means you have a 200 MW plant that is suddenly offline – then you have a problem,” the minister explained.

In an infamous incident, a vessel damaged the interconnector in late 2019 with its anchor, leaving Maltese households in the dark. 

Malta also experienced power cuts in the summer of 2021 and July 2023, as the island struggled to cope with rising power demand.

Renewables

“For Malta, if we really want to decarbonise our economy, our only option is to go for renewables,” said Dalli.

But while continental Europe can embrace cheap onshore wind and solar panels, “we need offshore solutions given our lack of space,” she adds – which means floating wind or solar that are “still very expensive.” 

So an “issue with financing remains” although Malta is angling for “further help” from the European Commission, especially given their “limited alternatives and expensive technology.”

The European Commission concluded that Malta’s planned deployment of renewable energy “is significantly below” the targets set by EU law.

The Commission was responding to Malta’s latest ‘National Energy and Climate Plan‘ which the Commission says will only deliver 11.5% renewable energy by 2030. The Commission holds that Malta should deliver 28% renewable penetration by 2030.

The island nation is also seeking to build a gas pipeline to connect with Sicily. The controversial project is seeking EU funding, with promotors claiming that it will be used to transport decarbonised hydrogen in the future.

A vision for Europe

Beyond local power generation, “the future is interconnection,” the minister said. “The more we have, the better we can tap into the potential of renewables, potentially even in Northern African countries.”

It is this connection to North Africa that has the potential to turn Malta into a central link between the African continent and Mediterranean Europe.

“Last year, we brought the MED9, the nine EU countries in the Mediterranean, together and jointly agreed to work towards making our region a green hub,” the Maltese politician recalled.

Now, “with Malta placed in the middle, we’re analysing the potential of linking to Northern Africa because the opportunity is there.” Exchanging power across the Sea “could also help provide a more stable Mediterranean region,” she explained.

Two EU energy ministers have a shared vision for interconnected power grids: While Belgium’s Tinne van der Straeten “is spearheading an initiative in her North Sea region, we are spearheading something similar in the Mediterranean.” 

“It is the same vision and, ultimately, it is one EU.”

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic]