The investment “fever” for the development of renewable energy projects has put Greece on track to break consecutive records in the last 5 years. Thus, after the historical firsts every year in the period 2019-2022, according to the forecast of the competent Administrator (DAPEEP), this trend will all but stop in 2023, as it is estimated that this year will break the “barrier” of 2,000 for the first time MW (Megawatts), in activations within a year of “green” power generation projects.
The Administrator’s forecasts are included in his latest bulletin for the Special RES Account (for September 2022), which also includes the data for the previous 4 years and which show that year after year the “bar” was raised higher and higher. Thus, in 2019 RES plants with a total capacity of 905 MW were put into operation, in 2020 new projects of 999.3 MW and in 2021 units of 1,233 MW.
The investment “fever” for the development of renewable energy projects has put Greece on track to break consecutive records in the last 5 years. Thus, after the historical firsts every year in the period 2019-2022, according to the forecast of the competent Administrator (DAPEEP), this trend will all but stop in 2023, as it is estimated that this year will break the “barrier” of 2,000 for the first time MW (Megawatts), in activations within a year of “green” power generation projects.
The Administrator’s forecasts are included in his latest bulletin for the Special RES Account (for September 2022), which also includes the data for the previous 4 years and which show that year after year the “bar” was raised higher and higher. Thus, in 2019 RES plants with a total capacity of 905 MW were put into operation, in 2020 new projects of 999.3 MW and in 2021 units of 1,233 MW.
For 2022, the Operator estimates that new installations will break another record, with new installations reaching a total capacity of 1,518 MW. However, this record will be broken this year, as it is predicted that new “green” investments with a total capacity of 2,015 MW will be “activated”.
According to DAPEEP, photovoltaic parks will dominate these projects, with their total power amounting to 1584 MW. Wind farms will follow, increasing their portfolio by 412 MW, while the rest of the less widespread “green” technologies will follow.
Thus, the new small hydroelectric projects will amount to 13.5 MW, while the new biomass units to 5.5 MW. The increase in the installed capacity of cogeneration units of electricity & heat will be marginal, by just 1 MW.
Price containment
An important reason for the significant strengthening of RES penetration is the previous competition scheme, which “locked in” tariffs for a large green portfolio, which is gradually being built. However, it is also important to strengthen “small” projects, which are either connected to the DEDDIE distribution network, or grouped in the transmission system.
In addition to strengthening energy autonomy and limiting the use of fossil fuels, the penetration of RES also brings about restraint in wholesale prices. This is because, since the beginning of the energy crisis, the fees of renewable energy sources for their electricity production have moved to significantly lower levels than those of conventional fossil fuel stations, RES have evolved into the main sources of financing subsidies in the electricity bills of end consumers .
In fact, since the beginning of July, financing is done by withholding a significant part of the revenue “at the source”, by imposing a ceiling on their remuneration at 85 euros per Megawatt hour.
Through this measure, as Insider.gr has written, until the middle of December 2022, RES had contributed 1.7 billion euros to the Energy Transition Fund to finance the subsidies. This amount corresponds to 61% of the total revenue from the Measure, as the second “blood donor” (which was the lignite stations) contributed approximately 470 million to the Fund.
