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Greece adds warehouses to solar tenders – pv International warehouse

Posted on by darion

The Greek Parliament has approved a new law introducing a renewable energy policy on the design of auctions and small projects with stable feed-in tariffs.

Since 2016, when Greece introduced a competitive renewable energy auction framework and held its first solar PV tender, the country has awarded over 2 GW of solar generation capacity. Awarded projects typically participate in the energy market and provide variable feed-in premiums on top of market prices. The value of these contributions depends on a number of market variables, such as the marginal price, as well as on rates set through competitive bidding.

This policy is still in force today, but at the end of April the Greek Parliament passed a new law (Law 5106/2024) that allows the government to organize auctions for asset owners who are willing to accept higher capacity curtailment rates than usual for their projects, as well as installations containing systems energy storage.

The new policy comes into force on May 1, but before the Greek government can hold the first tenders, it will have to approve the new auction program.

The new act does not specify the percentage of electricity supply restrictions for projects awarded in future auctions. Instead, the new law allows the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy to separately set the percentage of electricity supply reduction for awarded projects in each new auction. Similarly, the requirements for the energy storage system in future auctions will also be determined by the ministry before each tender.

This new approach to auctions is intended to help Greece deal with the problem of limited electricity supplies. In the first quarter of 2024, the country reduced about 4% of its domestic green electricity production. However, there are concerns that restrictions could increase sharply in the future, given the current pace of development and the country’s ambitious renewable energy targets

The new law also put an end to feed-in rates for photovoltaic projects with a capacity of up to 500 kW. Developers of such installations with the necessary licenses can sign contracts with the Greek Renewable Energy Sources Operator and sell the generated electricity on the electricity market at a feed-in tariff of EUR 65.73 ($71.37)/MWh. Projects up to 1 MW for energy communities or farmers will receive a feed-in tariff of EUR 68.87/MWh.

Developers of these projects will have to sign contracts with the Renewable Energy System Operator by May 31, 2024. After this date, developers will have to participate in competitive auctions and secure contracts at competitive prices.

The extension until December 31, 2024 applies to projects in the Greek lignite mining regions of Florina and Kozani in the West Macedonia Prefecture, as well as to certain projects implemented by farmers or the Greek distribution network operator.

That said, solar farms with feed-in tariff contracts until May 31 or December 31 will also have to be installed and connected to the grid by specific dates, as Greece appears to be in a rush to shut down this market segment.

Solar projects in this category may seem small, but they have been the lifeblood of the Greek solar sector for years, adding significant capacity and keeping the sector alive.

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