January 20, 2009

Athens, Greece: Greek Parliament Gives Green Light to a New PV Law

A new PV law was introduced in Greece on January 15th 2009, amending the legislation originally voted in mid-2006.

The new PV law:

- Sets a deadline for issuing permits. By the end of 2009, all applications that have been submitted so far (more than 3 GWp) must be dealt with and approved or rejected (this deadline is set for the first permit needed, the so called “Production License”).

- Abolishes the unofficial cap of 0.8 GWp that was set by previous decisions. No cap will be valid as of now on.

- Announces a separate program for rooftop PV with different feed-in-tariffs (FIT) guaranteed for 20 years. Details of this program will be announced later this year.

- Introduces a tender process for PV systems >10 MWp. Details on how this is going to work are expected later in the year.

- It is yet unclear when RAE will receive new applications (probably after 2009). Until then, a newcomer has the option of acquiring an existing company which has a permit.

- New feed-in-tariffs (FIT) are set. These tariffs are guaranteed for 20 years. FITs will be adjusted annually for inflation (25% of last year’s Consumer Price Index). FITs will remain unchanged for the next two years. There will be a regression of FITs as of Aug. 2010. However, one can sign a grid connection agreement thus locking the FIT before this deadline, and then get another 18 months to finalize installation. In practice, this means that FITs remain unchanged till early 2012.

The new tariffs will start at €400/MWh in February for 100 kilowatt peak systems and €450/MWh for systems less and equal to 100 kilowatt peak on the mainland.

Further details about: Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies