Greece

Norway’s Ocean Sun has agreed to provide its technologies for utility-scale floating PV projects that Greek developer MP Quantum Group wants to build on lakes, reservoirs and sheltered coastal inlets. They expect to secure permits for the first demonstrator by the end of this year.

The EU executive will investigate whether power company PPC abused its dominant position in the member state’s wholesale electricity market to squeeze out competitors.

Enel Green Power is combining existing PV arrays with agriculture at nine pilot sites in Europe. pv magazine recently spoke to Giovanni Tula, the company’s head of sustainability, about the business model and its replicability.

The three Mediterranean countries of Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed this week an agreement to develop a subsea cable that links their electricity grids. Upon completion, the so-called EuroAsia Interconnector will be the world’s longest subsea power cable and could boost solar PV development in all three countries substantially.

Companies from a dozen EU member states will commit the public funds in a bid to come up with novel battery chemistries and production methods as well as recycling and circular economy innovation.

Greek conglomerate Gek Terna has unveiled plans to deploy three large-scale floating PV plants at three different water reservoirs. Total investment in the projects is expected to amount to €170 million. Furthermore, the national utility PPC is reportedly planning to deploy another 50 MW and InterPhoton Group is considering to build a 500 MW facility.

The national energy regulator has announced the country will host its third joint solar-wind tender and the energy ministry separately confirmed the procurement timetable will continue until 2024, auctioning an additional 2.1 GW of solar and wind power capacity via another six auctions.

Each of the nations, like Greece, will have gigawatt-plus solar additions in 2024, according to Solarpower Europe, enough to carve out a 3% slice of an anticipated 35 GW regional market.

Launched in November, the “saving-autonomous” program is currently seeing strong interest from homeowners. The program has an €850 million budget and is intended at enabling around 600,000 homeowners to make their houses more energy-efficient by 2030. It includes the installation of a rooftop PV system in the frame of a renovation project.

The German renewable energy developer secured the €130m project in a tender held by the Greek government.