Greece eases Bureaucratic Red Tape for Green Energy to spur its Tottering Economy

Greece has cleared 840 MW worth of Green Energy Applications with a total investment potential of $2.7 Billion in order to spur its economy.The Greece Subsidy for Renewable Energy has been mired in Red Tape with approvals taking between 1-3 years.Greece has excellent wind and solar energy potential and very attractive Feed in Tariff Rates as well.It gives around 10-12c/Kwh for Wind Energy and around 60-70c/Kwh for Solar Energy making the returns very high for Green Investors.This has led to a huge 40 GW of applications which is more than the Greek Electricity Capacity.However the Government has kept the investors in the backlog as it figures its 2020 target mix from Renewable Energy.3.7 GW of Solar Applications are also waiting for clearance with the total Greek installed capacity of 50 MW only.

Greece unblocks 2 bln euro renewable energy projects – Reuters

Greece unblocked renewable energy projects worth 2.1 billion euros ($2.7 billion) as the cash-strapped country struggles to attract new investments to boost its ailing economy, the energy regulator said on Monday.

Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) said it approved last week several green energy schemes across the country, with a total capacity of 840 megawatts, and pledged to speed up procedures for the licensing of other projects.

Greece Green Policy is Totally Confused

Greece has a totally confused Green Policy in consonance to its general economic governance.The Parliament had taken a go at simplifying the bureaucratic mess by eliminating permits and approvals for small plants below 500 KW.However 6 months have passed without much progress.Greece needs to do a comprehensive overhaul of the Green Subsidies.The Solar and Wind Costs have fallen greatly in the interim so it needs to reduce the FITs to normalize the returns.Otherwise it might repeat a  Spanish/Czech Renewable Energy Boom and Bust.The Country has ambitious target of generating 40% of its Energy from Renewable Sources by 2020 but it is a hard target.Its Economy is mostly a basket case with experts convinced that it will have to either default on its sovereign fault or take a big haircut.In such a scenario big renewable energy subsidies would lead to further widening of the Fiscal Deficit.

Greece lags on renewable energy – BostonGlobe

Red tape, a lack of political will, and local opposition have cramped the development of an otherwise promising renewable energy market in Greece, whose climate is endowed with plenty of sunshine and wind.Despite one of the most generous government subsidies and long-term guaranteed electricity prices worldwide, it ranked 18th in percentage of renewables as a proportion of gross electricity consumption in the EU in 2007.

Greece is notorious for its long licensing procedure, which Vassilakos estimated at three to four years on average.

The government has just passed a zoning law for renewables as well as approved new incentives for individuals to install solar panels on rooftops and sell the electricity, doing away with a licensing process that used to cost thousands of euros.