Greece’s renewables share hits new monthly high of 54% in May

The share of renewable energy sources in the Greek electricity production mix reached a new monthly high in May, of 54%.

More specifically, data from the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) shows that in the previous month solar and wind energy had a share of 48%, while lignite fell to just 5%. Including large hydro, the share of renewable energy sources reached 54%, marking a new monthly high.

It should be noted that for a total of 21 hours during May renewables surpassed 90% of production and for two consecutive days (May 6 and 7) they reached 100% for 7 hours of each day. Notably, at 13:00 on May 6, renewables produced 6,055 MWh.

The new record put Greece in the 7th spot globally in terms of the share of renewables in production.

Renewables market overheating

Investor interest in Greek renewables has risen in recent years. During 2022 the country added around 1.3 GW of new solar installations, while licenses awarded by the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) have reached 95 GW, of which only 14% have received operation permits.

When it comes to energy storage, RAE has issued licenses for 205 projects with a total capacity of 15.82 GW.

The main roadblock for the completion of new projects is grid congestion. Both IPTO and the Hellenic Distribution Network Operator (HEDNO) have planned for significant upgrades in the remaining years of this decade. However these projects take time to complete.

IPTO: 19.3 GW of connection applications in 15 months

According to IPTO’s vice chairman, Ioannis Margaris, during the last 15 months connection applications reached 19.3GW, compared to renewables installations of 19.6 GW.

This is the reason why the former Greek government decided to apply the breaks and decelerate renewables installations for a while in order to spread out new projects for the next few years instead of pushing them all at once. It should be noted that in the next renewables auction (for 1,200 MW) due in September, a price of just EUR 54/MWh for solar and EUR 70/MWh for wind is offered, which is far lower than prices offered by other countries, such as Germany and Serbia, which offer EUR 113 and EUR 105 respectively for solar.

It remains to be seen whether the new government will maintain the same price ceiling for the auction when it is formally announced in August.