Greece To Add 1.36GW Of Solar Energy in 2022
Mar 16, 2023
According to data released by the Association of Greek Photovoltaic Companies, the installed capacity of the Greek solar market in 2022 will be three times higher than in 2021.According to data released by the Association of Greek Photovoltaic Companies, the installed capacity of the Greek solar market in 2022 will be three times higher than in 2021.
According to preliminary figures revealed to PV magazine by the Association of Greek Photovoltaic Companies (Helapco), Greece will add 1.36 GW of new connected PV capacity in 2022, of which 341.5 MW will be connected to the Greek transmission grid and around 1020 MW to the Greek distribution grid.
These figures are preliminary, as Greece has not yet officially announced the number of new PV deployments in 2022. Dapeep, the Greek renewable energy operator, has only published data up to the end of September 2022. dapeep's figures show that a total of 932MW of new PV capacity was installed in Greece in the first three quarters of 2022, but do not include data on installations under net metering, which will be announced separately by Hedno, the Greek distribution grid operator.
Helapco's more complete PV market statistics show that net metering systems account for only a small proportion of the 1.36GW of new solar capacity installed.
In fact, according to Halapco sources, 109.4MW of net-metered PV is connected to the Greek domestic grid, while small independent operators operating independent grids in Greece have added another 1.4MW of net-metered PV capacity. Interestingly, the 5.4MW of net metering capacity installed on the Greek domestic grid in 2022 includes virtual net metering systems.
Considering that the installed capacity of commercial net metering systems is more than twice that of residential systems, the Greek government hopes to boost the residential solar sector by implementing a new rebate scheme for the residential PV and energy storage sector. The government has said that the new scheme will be released soon, probably by the end of March 2023.
Fixed rates continue to drive growth
New installed PV capacity in 2022 is at least three times the 422MW of new PV capacity installed in 2021. This includes systems that receive subsidised rates through competitive bidding, small solar plants that receive feed-in tariff subsidies and are less than 500kW in size, and net metering systems.
Of the new systems connected to the grid, Helapco said that 200 systems or around 20MW of capacity are connected to the low voltage grid, 1,602 systems or 890MW of capacity are connected to the medium voltage grid and around 341.5MW of capacity is connected to the high voltage grid.