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BLOOMBERG
News March 11 2011
Greek solar-power developers willdouble the pace of installations this year after a new lawstreamlined procedures to get permits, the industry’s lobbygroup said.
About 300 megawatts of capacity will be set up, twice lastyear’s level, according to the Hellenic Association ofPhotovoltaic Cos. That will bring the total to almost 500megawatts by year-end from less than 55 megawatts in 2009.
Incentives for clean energy and the strength of Greece’ssolar radiation have spurred developers to apply for licenses tobuild 9,500 megawatts of solar capacity, two-thirds of whichwere received since June, government figures show. Constraintsrestricting the amount of new power that can be hooked into thetransmission grid may prevent a boom like those seen in theCzech Republic or Italy.
“There are so many applications that the government can’tcope, and the grid connection takes much longer than itshould,” Stelios Psomas, a policy adviser at the lobby group,said in a telephone interview. “It will take some time beforemany of these projects can take off.”
The government, targeting 2,200 megawatts of solar power by2020, adopted a renewable energy law in May that speeds up theprocess of obtaining building and environmental permits. Onemegawatt in photovoltaic capacity can power about 350 Greekhouseholds, according to the adviser.
Companies Connecting
Greece’s largest project, with 10 megawatts, was connectedlast month at Polydamanta by a unit of Ellaktor SA. Public PowerCorp SA (PPC), Greece’s biggest electricity producer, plans to developa 50-megawatt plant in Megalopolis and a 200-megawatt project atKozani. Yannis Papazoglou, a spokesman for PPC, said thoseprojects may be linked to the grid without delay.
Applications for 9,500 megawatts of power in all have beenmade, the Greek Ministry of Environment, Energy and ClimateChange earlier this month said in its annual report. Thegovernment’s solar target, the second-biggest in Europe behind Germany, seems “rather conservative” when considering thecurrent interest in developments, Psomas said.
Even if most of those projects were approved and connected,Greece’s solar energy industry would trail Germany’s, which had17,800 megawatts connected at the end of 2010, the biggestphotovoltaic market in the world, according to Bloomberg NewEnergy Finance estimates.
Capacity Quadrupled
Greece, which offers the highest premium for solarelectricity in Europe, almost quadrupled its capacity to 200megawatts last year. Its feed-in tariffs averages about 400euros per megawatt hour, according to New Energy Finance.
The Czech Republic and Italy by comparison increased theirbases about five-fold during 2010. The Czech Republic may havereached 2,200 megawatts and Italy may have built as many as 6gigawatts, according to the London-based research firm.
“The amount of future capacity installed in Greece willeventually come down to government’s ambitions,” said Pietro Radoia, a solar analyst at New Energy Finance in London. “Thegovernment cannot afford the cost of new PV installations, andthe slow permitting process has been possibly the best thingthat could have happened to Greece.”
The Greek government approved 1,793 megawatts of solarphotovoltaic projects by the end of 2010, compared to 393megawatts a year earlier, according to the environment ministry.
Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy has started aconsultation on how renewable-energy producers can improveaccess to the grid, focusing on the problems developers havereported in gaining access, it said on its website last week.
‘Accelerating’ Market
“The market is accelerating for all kinds of projects,particularly residential ones,” Psomas said. “All applicationsare now being accepted again for large solar parks, after a longfreeze, and small projects need much less paperwork.”
There are 30,000 applications for small projects with 5,182megawatts in capacity and 1,688 applications totaling 4,255megawatts for large projects, according to the governmentreport. Priority goes to those filed before last summer’s bill,some as far back as 2006, Psomas said.
Small projects have been boosted by simplified proceduressuch as the elimination of both production licenses for projectsof less than 1 megawatt and environmental permits for rooftopplants.
Larger projects will need to wait longer for gridconnections. The nation’s Regulatory Authority for Energy hasreceived around 180 applications for projects larger than 1megawatt since the new law was implemented, according to GeorgiaGlinou, head of renewable energy at the agency.
To contact the reporter on this story:Marc Roca in London atmroca6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:Reed Landberg atlandberg@bloomberg.net