Greece To Install 1.59GW Of New PV in 2023
Apr 07, 2024
According to estimates by research organizations, Greece installed 1.59GW of PV systems in 2023, and the cumulative installed capacity of PV systems installed in the country reached 7.1GW by the end of 2023.
The inconsistency in the installed capacity of PV systems installed in Greece creates confusion as there is no specific body in the Greek public administration that regularly publishes statistics on all energy technologies and packages, and different research institutes therefore often publish reports covering different segments of the market.
One such example is the Greek renewable energy operator Dapeep. According to a survey published by Dapeep, Greece installed 1,183MW of PV systems in 2023, mainly ground-mounted PV plants. However, its report does not include PV systems installed through net metering programs and energy community schemes.
The Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (Helapco) published a survey in February this year claiming that Greece installed a total of 1,574.7MW of PV systems in 2023.
The Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (Helapco) has updated its figures to include the 16MW net-metered PV system installed at Athens International Airport last year, which is the largest self-consumption net-metered PV project in Greece.
The association claimed that Greece added 1,591MW of new PV systems last year, bringing the country's cumulative installed PV capacity to 7,105MW. 2023 was also the highest year for the installation of PV systems in Greece, with 1.36GW of new PV systems added to the country's installed capacity in 2022.
The new installed capacity includes PV systems supported by tariff subsidies through competitive tenders, small PV systems up to 500kW subsidized by feed-in tariffs, net-metering PV systems, energy community PV projects, and PV projects that participate directly in the electricity market without subsidy support.
The Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (Helapco) said that Greece has not yet installed any PV projects operating through power purchase agreements (PPAs). According to a report published by Dapeep, the country has 183.7MW of PV systems directly participating in the electricity market by the end of 2023. Stelios Psomas, head of policy at the Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (Helapco), said that this is not the installed capacity counted under the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), and claimed that Dapeep has not published a detailed list of these projects.
The Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (Helapco) emphasized the importance of the net metering market. According to its published report, Greece added 257.1 MW of net-metered PV systems in 2023, the highest number of net-metered PV systems installed since the program was launched a decade ago. The majority of net-metering PV systems have an installed capacity of more than 1 MW. at the end of last year, the installed capacity of net-metering PV systems installed in Greece stood at 472.9 MW.
The growth in the net-metering market is linked to Greece's €200 million ($215.3 million) subsidy program launched in March 2023 to promote the installation of small-scale PV+storage systems in the residential and agricultural sectors, which saw Greece add 1,795 small-scale PV+storage systems last year, with 1,189MW of installed capacity for PV systems and 1,266MWh of storage capacity for energy storage systems.
Psomas said the €200 million program encountered some problems in the first few months of its launch. For example, a lack of flexibility in the management of PV projects led to many projects needing to resubmit applications. Delays in subsidy payments discouraged some consumers from participating in the program. However, various policy changes have resolved these issues, and half of the program's budget has already been spent.
Psomas said: "Experience has shown that it takes one to two years for new programs to keep pace with developments. We expect Greece to install around 60MW of net-metered PV systems in the coming months, which will number around 9,000."
According to another report published by Athens-based policy organization The Green Tank, the energy community will have 14MW of net-metered PV systems by the end of 2023. Based on the number of applications submitted by users in 2023, the energy community PV market is expected to grow significantly in 2024.
Data provided by the Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (Helapco) suggests that PV systems operating in Greece meet 18.4 percent of the country's electricity demand by 2023, which is by far the highest penetration of PV systems in the electricity mix of a European country.
The association also said that Greek renewable energy generation facilities, including large hydroelectric plants, met 57 percent of the country's electricity demand last year, up from 50.12 percent the year before.
