Greece eyes 2.3 GW of brand-new solar as part of initiatives to ditch coal

• Solar parks with a complete capacity of 2.3 GW will be developed in Greece as part of a EUR5 billion (US$ 5.94 billion) roadmap to sustain the phase-out of coal generation by 2028.

Majority state-owned utility Public Power Corporation (PPC) has been entrusted with the building of solar facilities in the nation's Western Macedonia area along with 0.5 GW of parks in the Peloponnese peninsula. Hellenic Petroleum will additionally create a EUR130 million solar project under the plan.

Those investments develop part of a 16-point plan revealed earlier today by Greece's energy priest Kostis Hatzidakis, who also announced brand-new energy storage as well as green hydrogen centers.

Reuters priced estimate Hatzidakis as claiming the financial investment will include state money, EU funds and European Investment Bank car loans. The strategy will be tabled for authorization from the Greek parliament and also the European Union by the end of the year.

For PPC, which is Greece's biggest power generator with 12.2 GW of installed capability, the solar projects represent the next action in its decarbonisation technique. Reuters reports that the firm has actually already shut 2 coal units with an overall capability of 550MW in Macedonia as well as will shutter ten more by 2023.

In the last year, PPC has authorized contracts with both German power major RWE and also Abu Dhabi-based Masdar to check out the development of renewable resource projects in Greece. The Masdar bargain consists of the organized construction of at least 300MW of solar and also wind.

Pending eco-friendly energy projects in Greece were given a boost earlier this year when the federal government passed regulations to reduce licensing procedures and also unclog a backlog that stood at 29GW as of March.