Policy

After weeks of tremendous uncertainty, a Euro Summit on Sunday led to an agreement that allows Greece and its Eurozone creditors to start negotiations for a new loan. What does the deal mean for Greece’s energy system, and how will renewable energies be affected?

The Greek government has introduced legislation to facilitate net metering for solar PV arrays. To reward the PV sector for the delay in the policy, Greece has designed a generous net-metering scheme allowing installations up to 500 KW. Is the new law able to kick-start the idle Greek PV sector?

Despite the encouraging news coming lately from other Middle Eastern markets, Israel remains the region’s most hopeful case for solar PV development. But will Israel seriously decide to boost its photovoltaic sector in 2015? Or are we set for yet another year of generally positive installations but nothing close to what Israel could or should achieve?

Israel’s government has approved the transfer of 520 MW of quotas for solar PV, signalling the beginning of an exciting time for solar power in the Middle East.

Greece’s Environment Ministry is set to introduce new measures in the hopes of reaching a long-term solution, including FIT cuts and loan extensions. Consumers, however, face still more RES fee hikes.

The Cypriot Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism has announced the results of its online tender with regards to the licensing of photovoltaic parks in the Republic of Cyprus.

The Municipality of Thessaloniki, the second biggest city in Greece, announced recently that it will install photovoltaic systems on the roofs of a total 50 municipal buildings. 48 of these are public schools.