Greece issues draft bill for easing licensing framework for renewables

Greece is considering a plan to shorten the licensing process for renewable energy projects by simplifying the required steps, the government announced.

A draft bill was presented by energy minister Costas Skrekas at the Council of Ministers last week. The goal of the proposal is to merge three stages of the current approval procedures so that they are carried out simultaneously and thus shorten the overall licensing process to only 14 months. The specific steps are the connection term process, installation permit and establishment of an operating contract with renewable energy market operator DAPEEP.

According to the current regulations, the three stages have to be completed one after the other. If the revisions are adopted, the total number of licensing steps will be cut to five from seven and the number of necessary documents will be almost halved, from 91 to 54.

Under the new system, renewable project developers will first have to be issued a power producer certificate and then apply for an environmental permit, before seeking grid-connection approval. Steps four and five will be to reach agreements with DAPEEP and the grid operator and obtain an operating license.

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