Greece to Drive Growth of Photovoltaics with Its Third Joint Energy Project Auction

The country's regulatory body (RAE) announced this week that in May 2021, Greece will launch its third joint auction for wind and photovoltaic (PV) energy projects.

This annual initiative strengthens the country's commitment to significantly changing its generation mix, increasing its green energy production even before retiring its coal power plants in order to achieve its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

In 2018, the first year of these auctions, solar photovoltaic and wind energy accounted for around 28% of the mix. As of now, this figure exceeds 35%, largely due to these renewable auctions.

According to GlobalData, this share is expected to rise to 56% of the mix by the end of 2030. Previously, the solar photovoltaic energy market was stimulated by FIT (Feed-In Tariff) incentives, which contributed 13% to the generation mix. After these tariffs ended in 2015, the market stagnated, leading to the introduction of these auctions in 2018.

The Spanish public business entity ICEX announced last December that energy generation from all renewable sources now exceeds 34.6% of the total installed capacity of the Greek energy system. Of this, solar photovoltaic energy represents only 8.1%, while wind energy accounts for 14.9%, hydropower 8.3%, and biofuels 3%