Photo: Freepik
The Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Energy Producers – SPEF is critical of the revised National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), which is currently under public consultation. The government must put a brake immediately on the interest in investing in photovoltaics and stop accepting license applications, Chairman Stelios Loumakis said.
The new plan “attempts to beautify a frenetic situation of monolithic overdevelopment in photovoltaic installed capacity, as a result of overly generous licensing policies,” Loumakis claimed.
The association expressed its views concerning the new NECP in a letter addressed to the Ministry of the Environment and Energy. It warned that as a result of the overheating of the Greek solar market, investors would have to deal with ever-increasing curtailments for years.
About 14 GW of renewable electricity plants are operating in Greece, 15 GW more obtained connection terms and 2.4 GW in projects for industrial power purchase agreements (PPAs) will get priority in connection terms. Apart from the above, developers of an overall 45 GW have producer certificates and the possibility to get grid access.
Therefore, SPEF estimates that photovoltaics would reach 19 GW by 2030, compared to today’s almost 11 GW. The country’s installed renewables capacity will rise from 21.7 GW to 34.5 GW by the end of the decade, according to the association.
Based on projections for electricity consumption in the following years, SPEF believes curtailments would surpass 25% by 2030 even if all storage goals are met under the NECP.
Loumakis: The state needs to face the technical realities
In fact, photovoltaics face higher curtailments than other renewable electricity technologies given that their operation is limited to periods of sunshine, in the daytime. Furthermore, Greece’s planned interconnections with North Africa and the Middle East would make things much worse for investors in solar power because of the potential flood of cheap electricity from there.
“The state needs to face the technical realities, away from any political embellishment,” the chairman asserted.
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