Greece remained in 33rd place in terms of investment attractiveness for the renewable energy sources (RES) sector on the latest Ernst & Young list for the month of September.
The country accumulated 45 points on the professional services firm’s RECAI scale, a measure of investment attractiveness, while, in terms of specific sectors, Greece scored 33 points for wind farms, 36 points for offshore wind farms, 27 points for photovoltaics, 14 points for the solar thermal sector, 35 points for biomass systems, 23 points for geothermal energy, 38 points for hydropower production, and 31 points for marine energy.
Romania was ranked one place above Greece, and the Philippines a place below Greece. The list’s top five was comprised of China, the USA, Germany, Japan, and Canada, in that order. On this latest list, China surpassed the USA to take over top spot.
A report accompanying the rankings noted that when RES reach 20 percent of total electricity production in a certain market, then the price of peak-hour electricity begins to drop considerably, which stands as a challenge for conventional power-producing units.
Ernst & Young also highlighted that price levels in Europe for tradable emission allowances remained at particularly low levels, currently at approximately five euro per ton, instead of levels of between 30 and 50 euro, which would offer far greater incentive for a turn away from coal to natural gas as a source for electricity production. Ernst & Young noted that the trading system could soon end up being abandoned all together, as RES sector production was applying tremendous pressure on electricity prices. This, alone, was serving as a price-shaping mechanism in the market, the firm noted.