The recent Solarplaza Summit Greece event in Athens underscored the growth of Greece's PV market.
Stelios Psomas – policy officer at Helapco, a Greek trade group – said that Greece installed 920.6 MW of new PV capacity in the first half of this year. He said about 580.1 MW are utility projects larger than 1 MW, 281.9 MW are commercial and industrial projects, and 58.6 MW are residential projects.
However, Psomas told pv magazine that Greece’s newly installed PV capacity for the year is approximately 1.5 GW, based on Helapco’s data, although this figure has not yet been officially published.
By comparison, the country installed 1.59 GW of solar capacity in 2023.
Greece’s PV projects receive remuneration in various ways. In recent years, one of the best-performing segments has been small solar projects, up to 500 kW or up to 1 MW for energy community solar parks and farmer-specific projects.
These projects secured contracts with the state until May 31, under stable feed-in tariffs. After that date, developers must participate in competitive auctions to secure contracts at market-driven prices.
Psomas said that Helapco expects 500 MW in this market segment to be connected to the grid this year. However, Greece’s distribution grid operator has been slow to connect these projects – a well-documented issue.
“We expect even more projects of this category than 500 MW to be installed this year,” Psomas explained. “However, given the grid operator’s delay in connecting the projects to the distribution grid, a lot of these PV parks will be electrified next year eventually. So, we will see this segment of the market adding new capacity to the grid in 2025, too.”
Net metering is another remuneration scheme supporting new PV systems in Greece. Helapco said it expects net metering to add about 100 MW of new PV capacity in 2024. Last year, the Greek net-metering scheme added a cumulative 257.1 MW, marking the largest increase in installations since its launch a decade ago.
However, Greece’s 5106/2024 law, approved by parliament in late April, closed the net-metering scheme, and the government stopped accepting applications after May 15. The self-consumption segment of the PV market is expected to grow based on the net-billing scheme instead.
Psomas also noted that many newly installed PV systems are no-subsidy facilities that sell generated power directly in Greece’s electricity markets or serve private power purchase agreements (PPAs).
Looking ahead, Greece’s recent draft National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) aims for 13.5 GW of installed solar capacity by 2030. However, Helapco said it expects the Greek PV market to reach this capacity level by 2026.
“By the end of this year, we foresee a cumulative installed PV capacity of 9.2 GW, which is going to climb to 11.5 GW in 2025 and about 13.5 GW in 2026,” said Psomas. “These calculations are based on PV panel and other solar park components orders already been made by our members of the association.”
In 2030, Helapco said expects Greece's cumulative installed PV capacity to range between 19 GW and 21.1 GW.
“In 2023, Greece ranked first in Europe in terms of the percentage of domestic electricity produced by photovoltaics, with a percentage more than double the European average (8.6%) and more than three times the global average (5.4%),” said Psomas. “We expect a share of ~24% in 2024.”
In 2023, Greece generated 57% of its electricity from renewables, including large hydropower plants. Psomas argued that the nation could achieve 100% green energy sufficiency by 2030. He added that if politicians claim this goal is unattainable by 2030, it should be made clear that anything less than a 100% renewables-powered grid by 2035 will be unacceptable.
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