Last year, Greece generated 57% of its electricity demand via renewable energies. This year the country is expected to score an even higher percentage of renewable electricity, although this success is accompanied by the thorny issue of curtailing surplus green electricity at times when the electricity system cannot accommodate it. Therefore, rather belatedly, Greece has turned its attention to energy storage.

So far, the country is running a 1 GW program targeting standalone, front-of-the-meter batteries. Greece has already run two tenders awarding about 700 MW of battery storage projects. A call for the program’s third tender, targeting specifically battery systems in former coal mining regions, is imminent. Awarded projects, under the 1 GW program, receive public subsidy support in the form of capital expenditure and operational expenditure subsidies.

Greece’s minister of the environment and energy Theodoros Skylakakis told a local energy conference in Athens earlier in July that the country is blessed with exceptional renewable energy resources and in order to reap the benefits of it, it should speed up energy storage development.

In line with this, Skylakakis said that the ministry is working towards a plan that opens the battery storage market in two ways. Firstly, allowing the colocation of behind-the-meter batteries along existing photovoltaic plants. And secondly, allowing new standalone, in front of the meter batteries without public subsidy support.

Both policies might prove important milestones in the country’s energy transition plan. However, there are plenty of crucial details that need to be specified for the new policies to prove meaningful.