Overall assessment

Greece's National Recovery and Resilience Plan explicitly mentions the financing of energy communities within its component 1.2. ("Renovate"), which has a total budget of 1,5 billion EUR (grants) for energy efficiency measures of households as well as household-level RES and energy communities.

Detailed assessment

General: allocation, definition, transposition

Specific allocation for energy communities

There is a targeted sub budget of EUR 100 Million that is allocated to energy poor households. Eligible investments under this sub budget include support to energy communities operated by Municipalities to allow sharing of produced green electricity with the electricity consumption of energy poor households.

Definition of energy communities in line with EU legislation

The definition of energy communities in Greek law closely follows the EU Directives. Transposition of directives 2018/2001 and 2019/944 for RECs and CECs in the Greek law occurred with L. 5037/2023. The definitions respect the open and voluntary participation, effective control and the prioritisation of socio-environmental benefits.

Proportionality of share of total fund allocated to energy communities

The €100million earmarked for energy communities stacked against the €6,194 million regarding the total budget dedicated to the Green Transition pillar, can be considered as a relatively small allocation.

Availability of tailored financing tools

This information is not available yet.

Link to a wider scope of activities and objectives

Link between energy communities, building renovation and energy efficiency

The funds allocated to energy communities (€100Mn) will only support electricity production. No other community-led activities (e.g., citizen led renovation), are foreseen to be supported.

Recognition of energy communities under multiple objectives

Energy communities are recognised under the objective of promoting renewable energy, as well as tackling energy poverty.

Transparency and inclusiveness

Holistic strategy to provide financing across different levels of project development

There is no holistic strategy in place to provide financing across different levels of project development (i.e., facilitating grid access, one stop shops, awareness raising & capacity building, pilot financing, administrative, business model and legal advice). Instead the Greek Recovery and Resilience Fund will only support RES investment projects for electricity production by energy communities.

Transparency of the design and communication of the schemes and measures

The design and communication of the Greek Recovery and Resilience Fund provided very limited opportunities for feedback by civil society.

Calls for proposals and beneficiaries are generally found in the official webpage of the fund, but they are not widely circulated nor is there transparency around timelines & eligibility criteria.

Selection criteria and the prioritisation of various social components

This level of information is not available yet.

Decentralised tender process

The funding programs for energy communities under the Greek Recovery and Resilience Fund are managed in a centralised manner.

Existence of procedures to facilitate the participation of energy communities in open calls

There are no relevant procedures in place (e.g., capacity building workshops/ working with network and intermediary organisations) to facilitate the participation of energy communities in the open calls under the RRF.

Stability and predictability of the programme through time

The program is expected to be stable, however not enough information is available at this stage.

REPowerEU

Inclusion of energy communities in national REPowerEU chapter

This information is not available yet.