For the second consecutive year, the Solarfuture Greece conference organized by the international organisation Solarplaza will be held in Athens next Wednesday. The aim of the conference is to bring in contact with the Greek market, international investors and companies in the solar energy sector.
According to the organisers, the event has already attracted the attention of many important market players, and representatives of the major companies in Athens will be found in Athens. These include Jinko, Hanergy, Glensol, Giz, Foresight, Huawei, Inaccess, Juwi, Kiwa, Schneider Electric, Refu, Solarcentury, Solarif, Solar Konzept, Talesun, Valorem and others. The focus of the event is expected to be on the state of the photovoltaic market in Greece, the competitions organized by RAE for the installation of new RES and the latest institutional developments.
According to the “white paper” released by Solarplaza on the Greek market for this year’s event, Greece has again become attractive for photovoltaics. two auctions divided into 193 small and large projects totaling 546.12 MW, the largest of which is the 204MW project by Juwi in Kozani, which is expected to become operational in the next two years and will be the largest FV park in the South. According to Solarplaza, competitions and ever-decreasing prices of photovoltaic equipment have again led the Greek market to be one of the most promising in Europe, but despite positive developments, the Greek market, according to the Solarplaza report, It faces a number of challenges in terms of licensing but also the interconnection of new projects with the network It is noted that in addition to the Kozani project of Juwi, the exhibition also refers to other important projects in the Greek market. how the 82.64 MW power park in Spes Solaris Thebes and the 60MW EdF Boeotia park.
As for the problems identified in the report for the Greek market, according to Solarplaza the main obstacle in the tenders is that there are not enough projects available to submit bids in subsequent auctions. This is due to bureaucratic and time-consuming licensing procedures.
There are currently over 6GW of applications for new projects pending the necessary permits. Also one of the key challenges for the market relates to the financing side, which has shown signs of improvement in recent months. Banks are beginning to understand the need to restart the market and the fact that risks are now minimized. It is worth noting that the report finds that in Greece a new category of investors has emerged, that of large multinational companies aiming not at competitions but in the development of large projects, which will conclude PPAs directly with buyers. (supply companies or large consumers). Concluding the report notes that the future of the Greek photovoltaic market is very promising. New projects lock prices well below the wholesale cost of electricity and photovoltaics appear to be the cheapest technology with the lowest energy costs.
By the end of the year, 250MW of new projects are expected to be added six times the size of the projects installed in 2018. It remains to be seen whether Greece, one of the sunniest countries in Europe, will be able to overcome the obstacles today in the market and benefit more than ever from solar energy, concludes the report.
The above article belongs to Mr. Floudopoulos and was published on www.capital.gr on Monday, November 18, 2019 (08:10 am)