RES spatial planning

New rules to ban wind turbines at tall mountains, small islands

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The installation of wind energy facilities at tall mountains and small islands is expected to be banned by new government regulations to be included in the country’s new spatial planning framework for the RES sector.

Work on the revised spatial planning framework, to regard tall mountains and small islands as special cases, is still at an early stage and is not expected for another year, at best.

Specifications defining what constitutes a tall mountain or small island have yet to clarified at this early stage of the plan.

Last summer, during the country’s wildfires, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had noted wind turbines would be banned from tall mountains and small islands. These thoughts were reiterated at energypress’s recent Renewable & Storage Forum by former environment ministry deputy Dimitris Economou.

The government wants to establish the new RES spatial framework as soon as possible to provide clear-cut rules limiting the reaction of local communities to RES installations in various parts of the country.

 

Municipal solar parks to help low-income household energy needs

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Municipalities and prefectures will be offered 100 million euros in subsidies, through the recovery fund, for the development of solar energy farms whose resulting earnings will be used exclusively to cover the energy needs of approximately 30,000 low-income household around the country, energy minister Kostas Skrekas has announced in an interview with Greek daily Kathimerini.

These solar parks will offer a total capacity of 120 MW, the minister noted.

The minister also noted, in the interview, that a further 40 million euros from the recovery fund will be used to subsidize the replacement of 2,000 conventional taxis with electric-powered models.

Taxi owners will be entitled to 22,500 euros in subsidies for each vehicle replaced, the minister said, while adding that a variety of criteria, including car age, will be taken into account.

Support is also planned for energy communities, according to the minister.

“Energy communities are important when they serve their purpose and not merely promote capital-intensive investment. That is why we will support energy communities that will benefit those in need,” Skrekas explained.

Responding to a question regarding widespread resistance of local communities against wind energy installations and criticism faced by the ministry for being too cooperative with investor plans in this domain, the minister remarked: “We don’t license everything. Investor proposals currently exceed 100 GW, but we, through the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), estimate that, realistically, approximately 10 GW will be installed – in other words, one in ten.”

Revisions to a revised, and stricter, RES spatial plan will be completed by the end of the year, the minister told.

RES spatial plan to be delivered within 2021, Action Plan notes

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The completion of a RES sector spatial plan within the current year has been included in an energy ministry Action Plan for 2021, just published along with the respective action plans of all other ministries.

The energy ministry’s action plan lists interventions planned for 2021 in nine areas under its authority, including energy-sector privatizations, energy market reforms, support for decarbonization and recycling, adoption of circular economic principles, greenhouse gas emission reduction, the tackling of climate change effects, as well as green energy transition.

RES sector measures this year will help cut down the time needed by new RES projects for licensing procedures to two years, the ministry anticipates in its action plan.

It also expects the installation, by the end of the year, of at least 2,000 recharging units for electric vehicles in public areas, including along highways, and at private properties, including domestic and commercial.

On the privatization front, the energy ministry expects all seven energy privatization plans to have been completed or reached an advanced stage by the end of the year.

On energy market reforms, the adoption of a remuneration mechanism for grid sufficiency, to replace a transitional mechanism remunerating flexibility, is a standout feature.

The energy ministry also intends to adopt, as Greek law, an EU directive promoting energy storage and demand response systems.

The ministry’s action plan also anticipates the signing of agreements this year for distribution network development and RES penetration support. It also expects DEDDIE/HEDNO, the distribution network operator, to announce a tender for the installation of smart power meters within the current year.

Taking into account plans by DEDDIE/HEDNO and power grid operator IPTO, the ministry expects investments in distribution and transmission networks to reach one billion euros this year.

Investments for gas network upgrades and expansion are expected to reach at least 300 million euros, primarily driven by projects planned by gas distributor DEDA, covering all areas around the country except for the wider Athens, Thessaloniki and Thessaly areas.

On international projects, the action plan notes that a Greek-Bulgarian gas pipeline project, the IGB, promising to significantly diversify Greece’s gas sources, will be completed by the end of 2021.

A latest edition of the Saving at Home program subsidizing energy efficiency upgrades of properties, budgeted at one billion euros, will stimulate work on 80,000 buildings in 2021, according the energy ministry’s action plan.

This activity will contribute to a National Energy and Climate Plan objective for an improvement, by 2030, of energy efficiency at buildings by 38 percent, reducing energy consumption to levels below those registered in 2007, the action plan notes.

 

Over 30% of RES project bids show territorial overlap issues

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Nearly one in three RES project plans submitted to December’s licensing round are problematic as they display territorial overlaps concerning envisaged project sites, energypress sources have informed.

More than 30 percent of 1,864 producer certification applications submitted to the December round claim overlapping territory for RES project development, especially in the solar energy sector.

This latest concern comes as yet another sign of an overheated market and this condition’s possible repercussions.

The territorial overlap problem makes clear that a significant number of project plan licensing applications were lodged in a haphazard fashion without any organized registration work for land claims, placing in doubt the feasibility of these project plans.

Licensing application numbers were also sizeable for an ensuing round last month. A total of 477 applications representing 8.8 GW were submitted, increasing the likelihood of the implementation of filters, currently being examined by the energy ministry, to block baseless applications from licensing procedures.