Greece Announces 40% Cuts To Solar Feed-in Tariff
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%.
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.
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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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