Author(s)

K. Gkarakis

Abstract

Greece ranks 5th worldwide with regard to per capita installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity. €4.5 billion was invested in PV in Greece during the last 5 years. In 2014, PV is expected to cover 7% of electricity demand. For a small country in an unprecedented financial crisis, this performance is indeed amazing. There is a very good reason for this: a brave support mechanism. This has skyrocketed the market, especially during the period 2011–2013, and reached a cumulative installed PV capacity of 2.6 GWp in June of 2014. However, this very mechanism has also overheated the market. High feed-in-tariffs and dramatic decreases of PV costs, since 2011, have led to an installation boom that the electricity market cannot sustain anymore. The Greek State took measures by reducing the fed-in-tariffs in existing and new installations, with result to bring new installations market into a halt. Today, the installed capacity of solar roofs is approximately 373MW numbering 41.217 installations. The purpose of the present paper is: (i) to analyse the current market situation of the roof mounted photovoltaic systems in Greece, focusing also in environmental benefits and attempts to segment the development of this market based on the legislation and the incentives, (ii) investigates the existing policy, as well as the crucial barriers for the continuation of the development of solar roofs and (iii) records the market proposals for the future.

Keywords

Greek Special Program for photovoltaics in buildings, solar roofs, development of the market, energy policy, overheated market