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The Minister of Development finalised in June 2006 and passed through Parliament a new law for the promotion of RES, Law 3468/2006, Production of Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources and High-Efficiency Cogeneration of Electricity and Heat and Miscellaneous Provisions (Official Gazette A' 129/2006) in order to speed up the licensing procedures and to reform the electric energy production from renewable energy sources. The new law sets a new reality and a landmark in the production of electric energy from geothermal sources, wind farms, photovoltaic systems and hydroelectric stations. The new law aims to act as the tool for achieving the national target for 20,1% production of electricity from RES until 2010 and 29%, until 2020. The new bill simplifies the licensing procedures and sets new financial and administrative incentives for the promotion of RES. Among others the 3468/2006 Law prescribes that:
• the guaranteed market price is increased up to five-fold (for the PV systems),
• the market time expands from 10 to 20 years
• the licensing deadlines are being reduced. Moreover the projected timetable after the activation of the present law and relevant legal actions from other ministries will end to:
a) operation permit in less than 1 year, instead of the 3 years up to now
b) less bureaucracy and arbitrariness since the list of the associated bodies for issuing the permit is shortened and only the relevant offices will be aware of the petition file
• the special levy for the local administration organizations hosting such companies is raised to 3% (with the exception of PV producers).
Summary of the introduced changes
1. Financial incentives for RES investments, especially for solar and photovoltaic systems whereas the prices of tariff system are increased up to 600%.
2. Restructuring of the corresponding deadlines for installation & operation license permits in order to speed up the whole procedure . The time framework for granting the production licence is set to a maximum of 5 months, for the installation licence to a maximum of 45 days and for the operation licence in to 15 days after the required examinations and validations from the appointed bodies.
3. Incorporation of th e Preliminary Environmental Impact Appraisal into the operation permit, targeted to accelerate and rationalise the overall licensing procedure.
4. Increase of the upper limit for the power capacity of RES installations that are excluded from the operation licensing procedure. Specifically, are excluded from the licensing procedure RES power installations from :
a) geothermal energy with power capacity £ 0,5 MWe,
b) biomass or biofules with power capacity £ 100 kWe,
c) PV systems with power capacity £ 150 kWe,
d) wind energy with power capacity
- £ 20 kWe for isolated autonomous microgrids
- £ 40 kWe, for the not connected islands
- £ 50 KWe, for grid connected installations
e) other RES technologies with power capacity £ 50 kWe.
5. Increase of the power capacity of small hydroelectric units from 10 MW to 15ΜW
6. The RES-electricity production of an ‘independent power producer', or the surplus electricity production of a RES ‘autoproducer', is sold to the Hellenic Transmission System Operator (HTSO) at a fair predetermined buy-back rate, which is not depending on the PPC's corresponding consumer electricity rate and can be varying in relation with the applied RES technology.
7. HTSO is obligated to enter into a 10-year contract (PPA) with the RES-electricity producer, for the purchase of his electricity. The contract always includes a unilateral renewal option for 10 more years.
8. Establishment of a licensing procedure for the operation of geothermal and hybrid plants
9. Formation of expert committees for the evaluation and disengagement of large RES / CHP investments from bureaucratic procedures and delays towards the immediate solution of the relevant license time constrains.
10. The harmonisation of RES-electricity tariffication system between ‘autoproducers', i.e. RES producers consuming part of their electricity production and selling the surplus to the grid, and ‘independent power producers', i.e. RES producers selling their entire electricity production to the grid.
11. The HTSO is obligated to grant priority access (priority in load dispatching) to RES electricity-producing installations without a limit to the power capacity.
12. The organisation of the relevant system for issuing guarantees of origin and the establishment of the relevant monitoring body.
13. Mandatory submission of the RES resource assessment measurements by a certified body.
14. Favourable treatment of petitions for RES electricity generation permits whereas the legal status of the RES project owner is of a public basis with the participation of municipality companies.
New pricing tariff system for electricity production from RES and CHP systems
Electricity production from: |
tariffs ( €/ΜWh ) |
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mainland |
non-interconnected islands |
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(a) wind energy |
75,82 |
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(b) off shore wind parks |
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(c) hydroelectric units < 15 MWe |
75,82 |
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(d) PV systems <100 kW, installed at dwelling or neighbouring dwellings of the same owner |
452,82 |
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(e) PV systems >100 kW |
402,82 |
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(f) solar energy, besides PV systems, with installed power capacity < 5 MWe |
252,82 |
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(g) solar energy, besides PV systems, with installed power capacity > 5 MWe |
232,82 |
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(h) geothermal energy, biomass, waste incineration, biogas |
75,82 |
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(i) other RES technologies |
75,82 |
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(k) combined heat and power (CHP)units |
75,82 |
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Finally, the needed licenses are namely:
- production permit
- installation permit
- operation permit
- environmental permit
- planning authorities license
- interconnection agreement with the utility (PPC)
- PPA contract with the system operator
The environmental permit and the planning authorities license should be in conformity with the existing limitations for land use or with the Special Spatial Plan for RES (when this will be issued). The main restrictions for land use concern:
- forestry characterised areas
- high productivity areas
- neighbouring areas with sensitive/special installations (airports, military stations)
- nature protection areas/NATURA network
- archaeological sites
National Development Law 3299/04  |
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