Greek officials confirm willingness to support photovoltaic energy
• Industry • South-East European INDUSTRIAL Мarket - issue 3/2007
Photovoltaic Mediterranean Conference:
Greek officials confirm willingness to support photovoltaic energy
PV MED was held in Athens on 19 and 20 April, it was an event organized by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, the Alliance for Rural Electrification and WIP. It was hosted under the high auspices of the Greek Ministry for Development and the organizational and scientific support of the CRES (Greek Renewable Energy Agency). |
The impressive possibilities of development of the photovoltaic energy in Greece which exists now was a common observation by every speaker from the Greek government and Parliament as they spoke to a wide audience of more than 400 managers of the photovoltaic industry and the international PV sector.
Winfried Hoffmann, President of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association in his welcoming speech explained how Greece was a key country to host this conference not only because of the abundant sunshine it is benefiting from but also because it is about to become one of the most important photovoltaic market in Europe thanks to the right decisions that the Greek government has taken recently. He also called on governments from the Mediterranean basin to strongly consider implementing the “EUMENA” super-grid. This long-term project actually plans to interconnect renewable electricity power plants from Europe, Mediterranean and Northern Africa.
The Greek Vice-Minister for Development, Mr. Ioannis Papathanassiou emphasized the great investment opportunities in the PV sector in Greece, especially after the adoption of the new Law for Renewable Energy Sources from June 2006. This law regulates the price for kilowatt-hour produced by photovoltaic: you can sale it to the grid at a price between 0.40 and 0.50 per KWh. Mr. Papathanassiou underlined that the new Law for Development stipulates that if you make an investment in Renewable systems it can be subsidised up to 60% of the investment cost. As he explained, now in Greece there is an interest to shift investments from wind power to photovoltaic power. The Greek government, said Mr. Papathanassiou, has a goal of production of electricity from RES which should increase from 11% today to 20% in 2010 and 30% in 2020. The Greek government is willing to attract investors from the PV sector. To make it more attractive for them, it was confirmed that the government is ready to include renewable energies and in particular photovoltaic in its up-coming law on land-planning.
Mr. Christos Papoutsis, Greek parliamentarian, member of the opposition party PASOK’s political council and responsible for development, tourism and maritime affairs, former European Commissioner for energy, explained how photovoltaic development in Greece can stimulate economic development. He pointed out that 63% of the world’s grid-connected PV systems are installed in Europe, of which 57% in Germany and only 6% in the rest of Europe. At the same time in Greece, the installed capacity of PV have only reached 5,4 MWp at the end of 2005. He pointed out the paradox that Greece, which is the land with the sunniest country in Europe, has at the same time the largest dependence on oil, in addition, C02 emissions are increasing 38% when it should be no more than 25% according to the Kyoto protocol which Greece signed. Concerning the reasons why PV should be further developed in Greece, M. Papoutsis pointed out that this is a national energy source which Greece is benefiting from, it provides independency from oil and helps to protect the environment, finally it can provide a better quality of life to the society. As he also said, photovoltaic systems produce more energy at hours of peak electricity demand and it is very suitable for islands, which Greece has many of.
Finally he stressed that both the government and the opposition, as well as the energy industry, and an increasing part of the society go for measures with cleaner energy and in particular solar energy. The next government of PASOK undertakes the responsibility to continue in this direction to take further measure in favour of solar energy.
The choice of Greece as the host of the 2nd PV MED of EPIA is a very important fact which shows that a new and very positive climate has been created in the Greek PV sector, stressed Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, member of the Greek Parliament from the New Democracy party. He added that if the PV industry wants to have a greater access to the market, they should give great importance on two fields: first the decreasing of cost for production and installations of PV and second to invest in technological research to improve the efficiency of their systems. Mr. Mitsotakis pointed out that in Greece the new law makes it much easier to get installation permission of renewable energy sources especially for small units, while the price for solar kilowatt hour has increased six times. But, as he added it is very important that their are responsible public services to implement in the right way avoiding bureaucratic barriers for investors. Further, he mentioned three initiatives in order to promote the PV development in Greece: 1) to promote PV in every Greek house; 2) to implement a program for energy independence in Greek islands; 3) to implement yearly national photovoltaic targets, which are easily measurable.
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