Solar water heating
Solar water heater grants and subsidies in Cyprus
What the Cyprus solar water heater scheme pays in 2026, who qualifies, when you have to apply, and how the grant compares with what a system costs installed.
7 min read
Photo: Sümeyye Şahin on Pexels
Maria runs the data collection behind our solar pages. She checks installer registrations against the electrical contractor register, records quoted system prices, and tracks changes to the grant schemes as they are published.
Published
The scheme that applies to a domestic solar water heater in Cyprus pays up to €450, comes from the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry, and is paid on completion against your invoices rather than approved in advance. Set that against an installed system price of €700 to €1,400 and the grant covers between roughly a third and nearly two thirds of the job, depending on where your quote lands in that range.
Which is the point worth taking away. The spread between a well-specified quote and a badly specified one is wider than the grant, so the money is made before you ever fill in a form.
What is available now
Those figures are read from our records at page load, with the date they were last checked. Scheme terms move, sometimes mid-year.
Two things about the thermal scheme cause most of the confusion.
It is a replacement scheme. It is written around taking out an electric water heater on an existing dwelling and putting a solar thermal system in its place, not around subsidising solar hardware in general.
It is not the photovoltaic scheme. The residential PV scheme is a separate instrument, worth up to €1,500, means tested, and applied for before installation begins, with a recorded end date of 31/12/2026. People read the PV rules and assume the thermal scheme works the same way. Plan a water heater around a "get approval first" process and you will wait for a decision that was never going to be issued; put panels on the roof before applying under the PV scheme and you may have disqualified yourself. If you are doing both this summer, treat them as two applications with two sequences, and start the PV one first.
Who qualifies
The scheme attaches to the dwelling, not to you, so eligibility mostly turns on questions about the building.
Is it an existing dwelling, and is the heater coming out electric? That is the core test. A new build with solar thermal designed in is a different situation to a 1980s house running an immersion cylinder.
Can you evidence ownership? Expect to be asked, and expect this to be what delays you. A property whose title deed has not yet issued needs a different paper trail. Find out what your file looks like before you order equipment.
Do you control the roof? The quiet obstacle in apartment blocks. Much of the Strovolos and wider Nicosia suburban stock is 1970s to 1990s blocks with a communal roof, so the cylinder is a decision for the management committee, not for one flat — and the flow and return need a riser route that does not cross someone else's property. Both are solvable, neither in a week.
Is it a dwelling or a business? A property let commercially may be treated differently from a home you live in. Ask the specific question about your specific arrangement.
How to apply
Confirm which scheme you are under
Thermal pays on completion against invoices; photovoltaic wants the application in before work starts. Getting this backwards is the most expensive mistake available here, and checking costs nothing.
Get itemised quotes, not a single figure
Cylinder capacity in litres, collector area, mounting system, removal and disposal of the old electric cylinder, and any pipework alteration, each on its own line. A one-line quote cannot be compared with anything, and cannot be reconciled against a claim later.
Check the company before you check the price
A trading name is not a registration. Confirm the company exists at the Registrar of Companies, that the electrical work will be done by someone entitled to do it, and that your invoices will be issued by the same legal entity that quoted you.
Ask how VAT is treated
Inclusive or exclusive, and whether the grant is calculated on the inclusive or exclusive figure. Two quotes that look close together sometimes are not.
Keep everything the installer leaves behind
Under a pay-on-completion scheme the invoices are the payout mechanism. Invoice, proof of payment, equipment documentation and commissioning paperwork belong in one file that day.
Submit, and expect to wait
Budget-limited schemes settle in tranches. Plan cash flow assuming you fund the whole installation and are reimbursed later, because that is what happens.
What it actually pays
The standard domestic installation here is a 150 to 200 litre thermosiphon system, supplied and fitted, and that is what the range above describes. The midpoint sits at €950.
What moves you within the spread is rarely the collector:
- Cylinder size and collector count. A household of five is not buying the same system as a couple, and sizing down to hit a price is how people end up running the immersion through August anyway.
- What has to come off the roof first. Removing and disposing of an old cylinder is labour. Off a flat roof reached by a stair it is quick; where it has to be lifted off it is a different job.
- Fixings and exposure. On directly exposed coastal roofs — Kato Paphos is the clearest case — salt-laden air makes marine-grade and galvanised fixings standard rather than optional. A coastal quote that undercuts by specifying ordinary fixings is not cheaper, it is shorter-lived.
- Travel time. Distance from the contractor base sits inside the day rate. Around Polis Chrysochous, well away from where most Paphos installers are based, that is a standing feature of quotes.
- Pipework. Rerouting the flow and return, or replacing old lagging, is separate from the system price and is routinely left out of the headline number.
Our prices section carries current ranges by district, and the solar thermal service pages set out what a standard installation includes — the useful comparison when a quote arrives with a number and no scope.
Deadlines and budget limits
Our record shows the solar water heater scheme open from 01/01/2026 with no closing date recorded, and the residential PV scheme running to 31/12/2026. Treat neither as a promise of availability in December.
Schemes like these are limited by budget as well as by date, so the practical deadline is when the allocation runs out, not when the calendar closes. A scheme with no published end date can stop taking applications before one that has one.
There is also a scheduling reality that has nothing to do with the Ministry. In the coastal tourist districts — Ayia Napa, Protaras, Paralimni — the November to March window is when accommodation is refurbished, so that is when installers there are busiest rather than quietest. Book ahead of that window, not into it. Inland and in the residential suburbs the pressure runs the other way: the first genuinely cold week is when every household with a failing cylinder calls at once.
The worst time to buy a solar water heater is the week yours fails, because that is the week you accept the first quote you are given. If your cylinder is old and you can see this coming, price it now, resolve the ownership paperwork now, and hold the quote.
Common questions
Can I claim the solar water heater grant and the photovoltaic grant?
They are separate schemes with separate conditions, values and sequences — one paid on completion, one applied for beforehand. Running both on one property is a matter of satisfying each scheme's own rules, so check the current terms of both. Qualifying for one tells you nothing about the other.
Does the grant cover a heat pump water heater instead?
The scheme in our record is written around replacing an electric water heater with a solar thermal system. Whether an air-source heat pump cylinder falls inside it, outside it, or under something else varies between rounds. Ask with the specific product in front of you.
What if I already have solar and it has failed?
Replacing an electric heater and replacing a worn-out solar system are not the same transaction from the scheme's point of view. If your existing system is solar and the cylinder has corroded through, ask before you assume.
Does it apply to a holiday let or a second home?
Ask, using the property's actual status. A home you live in, a short-term let and a registered tourist establishment are three different things administratively, even when they are the same building.
Do I have to pay the installer in full first?
Under a pay-on-completion scheme, assume yes. Budget for the whole installed cost up front and treat the grant as a reimbursement. Any other assumption leaves you unable to pay a legitimate invoice.
How long does the money take to arrive?
That depends on the round, the completeness of your file, and where the budget stands when you submit. Completeness is the part you control — an application missing one document does not go to the back of the queue, it goes out of the queue until you fix it.
Registered solar thermal installers
8 companies covering this area.
Ο υδραλικός στο σπίτι σας Μάριος Κασινιδης & υιοί ltd
Kalograes, Nicosia
Ο υδραλικός στο σπίτι σας Μάριος Κασινιδης & υιοί ltd is a plumbing business in Kalograes, in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include leak detection, bathroom installation, water tanks.
- Leak detection
- Bathroom installation
- Water tanks
- Pipe replacement
Charalambos Thoma & Sons
Archangelos, Nicosia
Charalambos Thoma & Sons is a plumbing business in Archangelos, in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include leak detection, bathroom installation, water tanks.
- Leak detection
- Bathroom installation
- Water tanks
- Pipe replacement
Moudouros
Nicosia
Moudouros is a plumbing business in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include leak detection, bathroom installation, water tanks.
- Leak detection
- Bathroom installation
- Water tanks
- Pipe replacement
- 1
ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΣ ΣΤΥΛΙΑΝΟΥ
Nicosia
ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΣ ΣΤΥΛΙΑΝΟΥ is listed on the Cyprus Energy Service register of certified solar water heating installers under registration ΕΗΘ/02/2018, valid to 15/01/2031. The entry covers ΛΕΥΚΩΣΙΑ, the nicosia district. Details come from the public register and have not been verified with the business.
- 1
ΣΤΥΛΙΑΝΟΣ ΣΤΥΛΙΑΝΟΥ
Nicosia
ΣΤΥΛΙΑΝΟΣ ΣΤΥΛΙΑΝΟΥ is listed on the Cyprus Energy Service register of certified solar water heating installers under registration ΕΗΘ/03/2018, valid to 15/01/2031. The entry covers ΛΕΥΚΩΣΙΑ, the nicosia district. Details come from the public register and have not been verified with the business.
- 1
ΧΡΙΣΤΑΚΗΣ ΣΤΥΛΙΑΝΟΥ
Nicosia
ΧΡΙΣΤΑΚΗΣ ΣΤΥΛΙΑΝΟΥ is listed on the Cyprus Energy Service register of certified solar water heating installers under registration ΕΗΘ/04/2018, valid to 15/01/2031. The entry covers ΛΕΥΚΩΣΙΑ, the nicosia district. Details come from the public register and have not been verified with the business.
- 1
ΑΛΕΞΗΣ ΑΓΑΘΩΝΟΣ
Nicosia
ΑΛΕΞΗΣ ΑΓΑΘΩΝΟΣ is listed on the Cyprus Energy Service register of certified solar water heating installers under registration ΕΗΘ/08/2018, valid to 15/01/2031. The entry covers ΔΑΛΙ, the nicosia district. Details come from the public register and have not been verified with the business.
- 1
ΑΓΑΘΩΝΑΣ ΑΓΑΘΩΝΟΣ
Nicosia
ΑΓΑΘΩΝΑΣ ΑΓΑΘΩΝΟΣ is listed on the Cyprus Energy Service register of certified solar water heating installers under registration ΕΗΘ/09/2018, valid to 15/01/2031. The entry covers ΔΑΛΙ, the nicosia district. Details come from the public register and have not been verified with the business.
We list companies by their documented services, district coverage and registration status. We do not rank them by quality and we do not publish opinions about individual firms.
Sources
- Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry — energy support schemes — retrieved 2026-07-24
- Electricity Authority of Cyprus — domestic supply and tariffs — retrieved 2026-07-24
Thinking of doing this?Get up to five quotes, free.
Send us your roof and your electricity bill and we will gather quotes from installers who work from your numbers.