Renewable

TIRANA (Albania), August 4 (SeeNews) - Greece has taken a key step towards harnessing offshore wind with the approval in parliament last week of the country’s first Offshore Wind Law, industry group WindEurope said on Wednesday.

Greece now has 4.5 GW of onshore wind and current targets call for 7 GW of wind capacity by 2030. It is looking to build at least 2 GW of offshore wind by the end of the decade, much of which will be floating wind due to the specifics of its coastline, according to WindEurope.

The Greek government is expected to adopt a number of decrees in the coming months that will specify offshore wind zones and auction criteria. Under these, Strategic Environmental Impact Assessments will be carried out to define broader offshore wind development areas, with exact installation zones to be subsequently assigned within these areas.

Within the next one to two years developers are expected to be able to start applying for research permits for the broad offshore wind development areas. Those with a research permit will be allowed to participate in the upcoming offshore wind auctions, the first of which could be held as early as 2025-2026, the industry group said. It added the government is opting for a sliding feed-in-pemium support scheme, which is similar to contract-for-difference (CfD) auctions.

WindEurope also noted that while Europe currently has just over 100 MW of floating wind it could reach more than 10,000 MW by 2030.

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