The European Commission (EC) has found Greece’s auction scheme for renewable electricity production to be in line with the EU 2014 Guidelines on State Aid for Environmental Protection and Energy.
Greece plans to hold separate auctions this year to support wind and solar projects. This scheme aims to produce electricity from renewable sources and high-efficiency cogeneration to advance the EU energy and climate goals while keeping competition levels intact.
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The EC stated: “On this basis, the commission concluded that the Greek auctioning scheme will boost the share of electricity produced from renewable energy sources, in line with EU environmental objectives, while any distortion of competition caused by the state support is minimised.”
Greece’s Government also plans to include other renewable energy technologies in the auction in the future.
The country will assess its bidding processes in 2020, prior to designing processes for the 2021-2025 period.
European commissioner for competition policy Margrethe Vestager said: “Greece will bring down costs for renewable energy with competitive auctions to support renewable electricity generation.
“This is very good and the scheme will facilitate Greece’s efforts to reach its 2020 climate goals.”
From 2019, joint auctions will be held for both wind and solar installations, which will help increase competition and reduce the cost for energy consumers.
