Greece has committed €5 billion to phase-out the use of coal by 80% by 2023, to reduce the country’s carbon footprint. But data and analytics company GlobalData suggests that this is an optimistic target – in 2015 coal-based generation formed 41.6% of the generation mix. According to GlobalData, in 2019 this reduced to 27.9% suggesting a share by 2030 of under 10%.
Somik Das, senior power analyst at GlobalData, commented: “This has been one of the largest investments the nation has made in recent times, strong enough to leave coal-based generation behind, subsequently bolstering renewables in the power segment. The renewable energy segment (including small hydro) is expected to get a boost over the decade, where 85-90% of the total new capacity addition between 2019-30 will be renewable in nature. Almost 55-60% of the RE capacity is anticipated to encompass solar PV.”
The country’s proposed green investment is expected to help create more than 8000 employment opportunities in the western Macedonia and Megalopoli regions. Investments incorporate a strategy by the state’s Public Power Corporation to build solar PV parks in Western Macedonia with a generating capacity of 2.3 GW, and a €130 million solar PV venture by Hellenic Petroleum in the same region.
Das added: “Across the country, there are more than 25 GW of solar PV and wind ventures, which are either announced, in the permitting phase or are under construction. The growing renewable space attractiveness is likely to capture global investments in the sector as the country plans to have new initiatives such as a reduction in application time for renewable projects, introduction of renewable energy certificates, energy efficiency measures, and planning offshore wind ventures. These bold steps make up the ideal ingredients for the country to [exploit] the green potential that lies largely unexplored currently.”
Linkedin
