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Global | Publication | May 2022
The Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy issued a new draft bill on 26th of April 2022, which if passed will impact on renewables projects, and solar projects in particular. The draft bill will be open for public consultation until 10th of May 2022.
It covers three main areas:
The aim of the draft legislation is to facilitate meeting the goals set out in the National Plan for Energy and Climate (NPEC) which have a target date for achievement of 2030. The key goals are to increase the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) share in (a) the country’s energy mix, up to 35%, and (b) the national production of electricity, up to 70%.
The main objectives of the draft law are to:
It is anticipated that by 2030 the total installed capacity from RES will reach 25 GW, up from 8.62 GW today. This targeted increase will require significant investments. It is currently estimated that in order to achieve an increase of 12 GW 10 billion EURO of investments will be required.
The modernization of the licensing process will be promoted through the simplification, digitalisation and acceleration of the relevant procedures. The new licensing process will also apply to current licence applications. Broadly:
The main changes proposed in the RES draft law are:
Greece aims to develop a minimum of 3.5 GW of electricity storage stations by 2030, in addition to existing hydroelectric stations. Storage projects will help to increase the penetration of RES, reduce the country's energy dependence on imported fossil fuels and strengthen the country's power efficiency and energy competitiveness. They will also contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, in line with the objectives of the Green Deal,3and reduce electricity costs for final consumers.
Based on forecasts of the Recovery and Resilience Fund4, by the end of 2025, electricity storage stations with total capacity of approximately 1500 MW will have been installed, 800-900 MW of which will come mainly from limited capacity storage systems (e.g. batteries) and approximately 700 MW from large capacity storage systems (e.g. pumped storage stations). Greece is the first country in the EU to notify the Directorate-General for Competition of the aid scheme to support electricity storage stations, and is currently awaiting approval.
The main points of the draft storage law are:
Electricity storage systems are divided into two categories:
The draft bill further includes a draft "Framework for the development of pilot marine floating photovoltaic stations" covering the licensing, installation and operation of up to 10 Pilot Marine Photovoltaic Stations (“PMPS”).
In order for investors to achieve the deployment of each PMPS, they will need to submit a complete application to the Department of Spatial Planning of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (which will be the competent licensing authority). The method of selection for the pilot projects is likely to be further defined by a Ministerial Decision.
The draft bill also provides that the PMPS facilities will be exempted from the obligation to obtain a producer licence, an environmental license and a building permit. In addition, the PMPS will receive a Final Grid Connection Offer from IPTO without the need for any prior environmental licensing. The Final Grid Connection Offer will be granted in priority over all requests, within one month from the submission of the relevant application, even in areas already characterized as saturated networks6.
Any party with an interest in a PMPS project will be eligible to enter into a Contract for Operational Aid with DAPEEP7 until 31/12/2022. It is proposed that this extends to any natural or legal person with a direct or indirect interest via participation in the management, or as a shareholder of a legal entity, of the relevant PMPS. A party will be allowed to conclude such contracts for up to two stations.
For the installation and operation of a PMPS, a single installation and operation permit will be required, which incorporates and replaces all administrative permits required by the current legislation. In addition, it is provided that the Greek State may, at the request of an interested party, grant the use of the relevant marine and land areas for a period of 22 years, for which a certificate for the installation of a PMPS has been issued.
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On 10 October 2024, the UK government published its long awaited response (the Response) to its January 2024 consultation on “Designing a policy framework to enable investment in long duration electricity storage” (the Consultation).
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