Greek program “Photovoltaics on the roofs”

05.06.2009: On a meeting with journalists Minister Kostas Hatzidakis (Ministry of Development), General Secretary Konstantinos Musurulis and sub-Minister Joanis Bugas announced a program “PV on the roofs” (further: FO.S program. fos = “light” in Greek) that will take in force within coming 10-15 days.

“We have the biggest quantity of solar water heating systems per capita in Europe and we were pioneers here in Greece. In several years, we want to be at the same place with photovoltaics”, said Hatzidakis.

The benefits and goals of the FO.S program are:
• Investment opportunities for citizens and small firms (<10 employees), who install PV systems of <10 kW without any bureaucratic obstacles and complicated paper work.
• Application to PPC and approval from Urban dept. (regulating small installations are enough).
• Connection to the grid will be done within 70 days after filing the application.
• Good feed-in tariff and an agreement with Public Power Company (PPC) for 25 years. The feed-in tariff will be €-ct. 55 per kWh for agreements signed until December 31st, 2011. For agreements signed after January 1st, 2012 there will be a reduction of 5 % for every year until December 31st, 2019.
• Application form will be available soon via PPC web site.
• The PPC will install the consuming/producing electrical meter and will pay for surplus of produced energy over consumed energy via bank.

The FO.S. program also removes a barrier for areas of more than 4.000 m2 to install PV parks and allows to cover up to 80 % of this land with PV panels

Citizens will be allowed to install PV systems themselves. List of technical firms will be available from the Ministry's web site on demand; certified firms, working on the RES market, will have priority.

The FO.S program will be in force for mainland Greece and islands connected to the grid for now. Rules for electrically isolated islands will be also developed.

For multi-flat roof buildings it will only be possible to install a single PV system on the roof.

An obligatory condition for mounting PV systems on roofs is the existence of a water solar heating system in place first (practically all houses in Greece already have this).

There will be no need for special permission from the Urban Dept. and Architectural Dept., but only a permit, regulating small installations according to the current legislation, the law 3212/2003 (FEK’A-308), paragraph 7(1).


Furter information:
www.ypan.gr - Ministry of Development
www.ypan.gr/c_announce/45_5379_cms.htm - Verbatim record of announcing FO.S program (in Greek)
www.ypexode.gr – Ministry of Environment