RES installation permit deadline for producer certificate validity

The energy ministry’s RES licensing committee has proposed an additional deadline, for installation permit applications, as part of a second wave of interventions in the licensing simplification effort for new RES projects.

According to the proposal, if investors miss their installation permit application deadline, then producer certificates obtained for related projects would automatically expire.

Investors would be given a twelve-month period to submit their installation permit applications once connection offers have been accepted for solar energy projects, onshore wind farms and hybrid units, and 18 months for all other RES technologies and combined cooling, heart and power (CCHP) facilities, according to the committee’s proposal.

RES installation licenses end to shorten processing by 6 months

A plan to scrap RES project installation licenses, included in a development-focused multi-bill presented last night for public consultation, promises to reduce the overall processing time for renewable energy investments by six months.

This revision will positively impact thousands of mid-scale RES investments in the wind and solar energy domains as well as geothermal, biofuel, biogas and biomass projects, industry experts explained to energypress.

The move is seen as a first step by the government towards simplifying laws for the renewable energy sector, as it has promised, and shortening the time needed for project maturity from seven years, as is the case in Greece at present, to two years, the European benchmark.

The decision to end the need for installation licenses will accelerate procedures for various RES project categories, including wind energy projects below 60 MW with line connections up to 20km; solar energy projects with capacities of at least 2 MW; geothermal projects under 5 MW; biofuel stations under 10 MW; biogas stations under 3 MW; and biomass power stations under 10 MW.