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A
second positive surprise comes from the
banking sector. Most banks in Greece
now offer up to 100% financing for the
installation of residential PV systems. It’s no won-
der then why thousands of people applied for
such systems.
The situation was not as easy some time ago,
and it is still not a piece of cake when it comes to
bigger commercial PV systems, where bureau-
cracy is still an issue and financing is hard to find.
The first Greek PV legislation was introduced in
2006, offering generous feed-in-tariffs (a premium
for selling green electricity to the grid) and setting
the details for the authorisation of PV systems.
These authorisation processes were, nonethe-
less, complicated and certain procedures were
lengthy or even unnecessary. As a result, and
despite good financial incentives, the Greek PV
market has developed very slowly in the past few
years, and thousands of applications have piled
up, mainly due to the legal-administrative barriers
imposed.
The Greek PV sector has been very active in try-
ing to convince the relevant decision-makers that a
much simpler and effective framework is needed,
in order to develop a healthy and robust market.
New renewable energy legislation (Law
3851/2010) was passed by the Greek Parliament
in mid-2010, bringing important changes in the
legal-administrative framework. Furthermore,
there were some new Ministerial Decisions, which
have lifted certain bureaucratic barriers.
More specifically:
•
New applications for large PV systems can now
be filed with the Regulatory Authority for Energy
(such applications were previously frozen).
Trade with Greece
28
Amidst an unprecedented financial crisis, the Greek gov-
ernment has taken bold initiatives for the development
of residential solar systems, offering not just generous
financial incentives but also simplifying the authorisa-
tion procedures. Any citizen who wants to install a solar
system with a capacity of up to 10 kilowatts (kWp) on
their roof can do so easily, simply by visiting the local
electricity company office.
The Greek photovoltaic
market:
a positive outlook
By Dr. Alexandros Zachariou,
President of the Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (HELAPCO)