Greece

Overall assessment

The modified Greek National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), including the REPowerEU chapter, was approved by the European Commission on 21/11/2023. The REPowerEU chapter consists of seven new reforms and four investments, including a scaled up existing investment. These include, among others:

> a reform concerning the introduction of a legislative framework to allow and facilitate the production, storage, transport and use of renewable hydrogen and biomethane,
> a reform concerning the optimisation of land and sea space usage for the development of renewable energy, in addition to the further advancement of the legislative framework for the installation of offshore wind farms,
> a reform to increase grid and storage capacity by addressing grid stability and bottlenecks,
> a reform of the regulatory framework for smart grids to accelerate the implementation of smart and digital technologies in the distribution network, and foster demand side response for the final consumer,
> a reform aiming at promoting energy sharing, thus encouraging the use of renewables by allowing decentralised generation and sharing among multiple small-scale renewable energy systems,
> a reform introducing a roadmap for innovative energy efficiency interventions, including the identification and launch of new non-grant based financial instruments.

All of these reforms have the potential to create new market activities for energy communities. However, only the reform on energy sharing explicitly mentions energy communities, including through the welcome step of allowing citizens in multi-apartment buildings to share energy through collective rooftop installations.

Despite the process severely lacking in transparency and inclusion, the final REPowerEU chapter marks a significant improvement compared to previous drafts. No fossil fuel projects will receive support.