Greece reboots Apollo program against energy poverty

The Greek government has redesigned and rebooted the Apollo self-consumption program, aimed at reducing energy costs for vulnerable consumers.

Initially, Apollo was introduced to support households, municipalities, water utilities and local irrigation organizations. Each of Greece’s 13 regions, also known as peripheries, would have a green power plant, and eligible consumers who join a local energy community get discounted electricity bills.

However, the first part, which included households, was not realized in time to draw EUR 100 million from the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). It expires in June 2026.

Tsafos: Both segments set for completion

“Apollo was one of the plans that we could not carry out in time, therefore we excluded it from RRF and increased funding to other initiatives, such as energy efficiency in houses,” Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy Nikos Tsafos explained earlier in December.

Now the government announced that the first phase would be continued using different funding sources, according to the new joint ministerial decree. In fact, the number of beneficiaries is higher than in the original version. A second phase would follow to support remaining consumer categories, based on a different decree.

“Our goal remains to complete both segments and we are trying to find new funding tools”, Tsafos added.

New auctions and deadlines

Based on the new plan, auctions will take place for 400 MW in wind farms and 200 MW in solar farms, with the second category being combined with battery storage. Selected wind power projects must be completed by September 30, 2028, and the ones for photovoltaics have until the end of 2027.

The decree also stipulates that auction participants may not be selected for more than 25% of total capacity offered in each auction. Every project must be mature, with final connection terms from a network operator.

Last but not least, solar farms without storage may also participate in the auction, as long as they include a battery afterwards in their license.