Greece to slash bureaucracy to unblock 29GW green energy project backlog

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
Image credit: iSAW Company / Unsplash

Greece has acted to shorten lengthy licensing processes for renewable energy projects, in a bid to free gigawatts’ worth of installations facing waiting times of up to eight years.

Solar players looking to deploy in the high-irradiation Southern European country may find it quicker to clear various regulatory hoops, under proposals part of a new Environment Bill presented by the centre-right government last week.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

Tabled by the Environment and Energy Ministry, the new legislation is meant to do away with the current system, which sees green energy applicants wait for 3-4 years (PV) and 6-8 years (wind) for permits. Alone, the first of 29 steps – the production licence – can take about 18-24 months to clear.

The Ministry’s proposal is to replace this licence with a new certificate Greece will grant under a dedicated registry, open to both new and pending applications. To drive down waiting times, the platform will liaise with government bodies and try and automate parts of the process.

The new certificate will be rolled out alongside specific, separate changes to environmental permits, also proposed by the new bill. From stricter deadlines for regulators to the merging of certain steps, the measures are meant to ease a process the Ministry said can be “painful”.

The government believes its bureaucracy-cutting push holds “huge” potential to unblock green energy growth. The system currently faces a major backlog – at 29GW across 1,800 pending renewable project applications – and is still processing applications from 2018.

Larger projects emerge as Greece’s solar decade kicks off

The easing of renewable licensing marks the latest green move by the government of the New Democracy centre-right party, which took office last year following its landslide victory over left-wing incumbent prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

For now, Greece’s new political masters have not sought to reverse the green energy policy agenda launched by earlier governments. The latest national energy plan, released last December, would have installed PV reach a cumulative 7.7GW by 2030, up from the current 2.6GW-plus figure.

To date, auctions have remained the government’s instrument of choice to fuel renewable growth. Launched in July 2018, the programme initially revolved around separate tenders for PV and wind but is now also being used, since last year, for auctions mixing both technologies.

At six of all seven winning bids, solar dominated the technology-neutral tender of April 2019, which awarded 437MW at record-low prices. Planned on 2 April, its 500MW successor has drawn 711.69MW in bids, repeating the oversubscription already seen with last year’s. tender

Technology-specific tenders have, however, proved less popular so far. The solar-only auction of July 2019 released an initial 300MW but triggered bids for only 200.26MW. The ensuing PV tender last December too was undersubscribed, receiving bids for roughly half the 287.11MW on offer.

As Greece opts for different avenues in the decade of solar growth, interest in larger solar projects is on the rise. Recently sold from German developer juwi to Greek oil group HELPE, a 204.3MWp PV project in Western Macedonia should break ground this year, following years of pre-development.

The prospects and challenges of European solar will take centre stage at Large Scale Solar Europe 2020 (Lisbon, on 31 March-1 April 2020).

2 December 2025
Málaga, Spain
Understanding PV module supply to the European market in 2026. PV ModuleTech Europe 2025 is a two-day conference that tackles these challenges directly, with an agenda that addresses all aspects of module supplier selection; product availability, technology offerings, traceability of supply-chain, factory auditing, module testing and reliability, and company bankability.
10 March 2026
Frankfurt, Germany
The conference will gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing out to 2030 and beyond.

Read Next

July 18, 2025
Companies have signed 4.22GW of solar PV power purchase agreements in the first half of 2025, according to Swiss consultancy Pexapark.
Premium
July 18, 2025
Inside the European Solar Academy's steps to equip Europe’s workforce with necessary skills as it approaches its first anniversary.
July 18, 2025
Decisions and actions related to the US Department of Interior (DoI) will ‘undergo elevated review’ of solar PV and wind facilities.
Premium
July 17, 2025
Implementing greater policy clarity pertaining to the EPBD will be essential if Europe is to realise its distributed rooftop solar targets.
July 17, 2025
Corporate funding in the solar sector fell by 39% in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period last year.
July 16, 2025
ABB has announced that its 2,000V OTDC is the first switch-disconnector of this size to receive certification from UL Solutions.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Media Partners, Solar Media Events
September 2, 2025
Mexico City, Mexico
Solar Media Events
September 16, 2025
Athens, Greece
Solar Media Events
September 22, 2025
Bilbao, Spain
Solar Media Events
September 30, 2025
Seattle, USA
Solar Media Events
October 1, 2025
London, UK