Don’t take your eyes off Greece

Case study | 30.6.2023

With a prime location for both sun and wind, Greece has, for some time now, enjoyed heavy investments and deployment of renewable energy projects. With €2.5 billion worth of PV projects earmarked for development by 2030 and investments yields that are, comparatively, close to 30% higher than its Northern EU counterparts, Greece is taking full advantage of its natural resource. It already boasts 10GW installed renewable energy capacity, and in in October 2022, the entire country managed to run entirely powered on renewable energy. Greece is one of only 9 countries that have double digit PV penetration. It is tied for second, with Chile, only behind Spain. Demands for connections are stretching system operators and the grid. To help combat the backlogs and demand, legislators are continuously improving regulations and processes. Renewable energy development in Greece comes with its fair share of bureaucracy and administration but there is no denying Greece’s potential, speed, and ambitions when it comes to renewable energy development.   

Greece is also one of the EU’s front runners when it comes to agrivoltaics. With triple land use benefits: optimum crop & energy production and reduction of water consumption there are many ongoing Agri PV pilots well underway with legislation expected to shortly follow. The General Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development & Food of Greece opened the 2022 Agri PV conference by touting that Agri PV will be the next big thing in Greece. We are seeing a host of Greek companies driving innovations in Agri PV technologies, with the ambition that Greece becomes a solar innovation hub.  

Greece has also been making some serious moves when it comes to regional energy power plays. In March, Greece, Israel and Cyprus announced plans for the EuroAsia Interconnector, a 2GW cable to drive energy security across the region. A third of the funding will come from the EU. In April, ERBD approved a loan of €88M for the development of undersea cables to connect mainland Greece with their islands. The investment will not only help to lower the cost of energy but will also allow for serious offshore wind growth. In May, Greece announced its’ role in the Med9 Alliance, a regional effort to drive offshore RE growth across the Mediterranean and Africa. And if that was not enough, Greece has also submitted a proposal to the EU Commission that seeks to overhaul the European grid, with the hopes to release some of the 600GW of wind and solar projects on hold across EU and UK due to grid limitations. 

Greece’s growth in renewable energy is reflective of the country’s dramatic economic turnaround. After over a decade of holding the unenviable brand of Europe’s problem child, Greece’s economy is booming. Posting one of the EU’s strongest GDP gains post-Covid, and with the expectation that it will regain its investment grade rating, Greece has been able to turn around what many believed to be unsavable, unsustainable economy.  

Our portfolio in Greece is currently ~1,000 MW. Together with our local developers GH Energy and 2A Green Energy our projects could power up to 500,000 homes across Thessaly and Crete.

Learn more about the energy markets of various countries in our market report, Renewables Review. There we also take a closer look at rising trends such as agrivoltaics.