While Greece’s PV industry association puts a brave face on the country’s low installed capacity numbers, a frustrated integrator complains that bureaucracy strongly hampers market growth

November, 2009: Stelios Psomas understands as well as anyone that the Greek PV market could – and should – be doing a lot better than it is. Still, as the policy advisor of the Greece’s Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Companies (HELAPCO), he tends to put the good spin on what is happening with the sales for PV in his country.

In a 13th worldwide ranking in 2008, he expects it will soon climb into the top ten. »This is a market waiting to boom,« Psomas says.

For Christos Protogeropoulos that is exactly the problem – not the boom, but the waiting. The Greek PV market has been on hold for 3.5 years, says the general manager of the Greek office of German-headquartered PV integrator Phoenix Solar. That was when a feed-in tariff was put in place (see PI 7/2006, p. 128), slated to start degressing by 5 percent in August 2010. And still neither Greece nor his company has much to show for it, especially as falling module prices have kept many customers from committing to contracts. Declining to give any details about what Phoenix is doing in Greece, Protogeropoulos is beside himself with frustration. His verdict? The Greek market has »stagnated, absolutely stagnated.«

The criticism seems true. As of the end of 2008, Greece had only about 11 MW (including 1 MW from the Greek islands) connected to the grid. According to Greece’s grid system operator, HTSO, by the end of July this had only risen to a cumulative PV capacity of just under 30 MW (see graph, p. 64). But the country’s Regulatory Authority on Energy (RAE) reportedly has a waiting list of 3.7 GW. And so far, it has only approved 450 MW of systems above 150 kW for production permits (a second environmental impact permit is required before construction can start). Indeed, RAE has stopped accepting applications for systems over 20 kW (for systems below this no application and approval process is required).

Backlog taking its toll

RAE, says Protogeropoulos, simply »does not have the staff« to evaluate a backlog of 8,700 requests that has accumulated. An individual application that should require no more than several months to process can take up to 3 years, he complains. Psomas is also frustrated by the bureaucracy, adding that RAE has at least promised to »look at« all of the applications by December. The good news, he believes, is that this should be the last year of waiting – next year could be »close to normal.«

Both Psomas and Protogeropoulos seem to agree that part of the problem is a huge interest that has attracted new installation companies to set up shop. »It’s like a curse,« Psomas says. »A lot of people are investing and opening offices here as they wait for the market to grow.« But unless Greece is able to hit a market of 200 to 300 MW annually, he fears the situation will not be sustainable. Psomas says even in the best-case scenario, Greece might have a market of 145 MW in 2010, with a more likely business-as-usual market of around 110 MW. For this year, he is predicting 38 MW, a number that Protogeropoulos finds exaggerated.

One of the solutions was supposed to be the start of a rooftop program announced in June. It was aimed at residential systems up to 10 kW (see PI 6/2009, p. 52). Its dedicated feed-in tariff of 55 euro cents (79¢) per kWh was not only as much as 27 percent higher than for commercial systems, the 20-year period of payment was even extended to an incredible – if not excessive – 25 years. »And yet,« Protogeropoulos complains, »I still haven’t seen one single rooftop system.« HELAPCO’s Psomas thinks it could take 2 to 3 years for the residential PV market to mature.

As to the large-scale PV market, in addition to the feed-in tariff, Psomas points out that Greece will start a tendering process for PV systems above 10 MW, but the details on how this will work aren’t expected until next year. Currently, grants for commercial projects of between 20 and 40 percent are available, including for past applications with a capital expenditure of €100,000 ($143,000). But in the future, grants will not be available for systems above 2 MW.

So where does this leave Greece? Looking to the ballot box mostly. The Socialists, out of power since 2004, are widely expected to win an election slated for Oct. 4. If they do, Psomas says its leaders, who have expressed green leanings, would most likely speed things up for PV by reducing the bureaucracy, although »nothing »is written in stone.« Whoever ends up in office, he thinks PV is safe – it would be »political stupidity and suicide« to stop its support. »PV is the fastest growing energy industry in Greece,« Psomas notes with good spin.

Perhaps. But given the low numbers for increasing installed capacity, it still has a long way to go.


From photon-magazine