Greece Announces 40% Cuts To Solar Feed-in Tariff

May 16th, 2013 by Joshua S Hill

From a price of €171.9 per megawatt hour (MWh) back in August of 2012, the Greek Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change (YPEKA) announced this past Friday that they will be cutting the feed-in tariff price down to €95 per MWh of generated electricity starting June 1, a reduction of 44.7%.

Solar panels in Greece
Image Credit: Michael Mahlberg via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The new ministerial decision encompasses photovoltaic parks larger than 100 KW which have been connected to the energy grid from February 2013.

Furthermore, the feed-in tariff for PV systems of up to 100 KW have been cut by 46.6%, down from €225/MWh in August of 2012 to €120/MWh, while photovoltaic parks of any capacity connected since February 2013 to the autonomous electricity grids of the Greek islands will have access to a feed-in tariff of €100/MWh.

While the current cuts are drastic, they will only continue to decrease as time goes on. The YPEKA added that from February 2014 the feed-in tariffs for PV systems larger than 100 KW will receive €90/MWh, up to 100 KW down to €115/MWh, and those connected to the Greek islands will drop to €95/MWh.

The retroactive cuts were made to reduce the deficit of the Renewable Energy Sources Fund, used to help Greek renewable energy producers. According to the YPEKA the deficit at the end of February was €301.7 million. However, Craig Winneker, the head of political communications at the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, does not think these feed-in tariff reductions will do as the government hope:

“Taxes are not acceptable, even if there is tariff deficit; the high cost of FiTs comes from the fact that FiTs have not been adapted early enough.

“In addition,” Winneker told PV-Tech, “the fact of having regulated tariffs in Greece is the core of the problem rather than the actual cost of FiTs.”

Photovoltaic parks were not the only solar industry to be included in the feed-in tariff updates, with rooftop solar installations also being slashed by 47.6% down to €125/MWh, with further reductions to follow over the next six years (as shown below);

Month/Year	FIT (€/MWh)
February 2013	125
February 2014	120
February 2015	115
February 2016	110
February 2017	105
August 2017	100
February 2018	95
August 2018	90
February 2019	85
August 2019	80

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Tags: Energy and Climate Change, greece, Greek Ministry of Environment, photovoltaic, photovoltaic parks, PV, solar paels, YPEKA

About the Author

Joshua S Hill I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.