Greece climbs to second among RES markets

Athens: Greece is among the world’s leading markets for renewable energy sources.

According to the latest edition of EY’s six-month survey, Greece has improved its position among the leading markets for RES, rising from third to second place in EY’s adjusted RES index, which looks at country performance adjusted according to the size of their gross domestic product.

At the same time, Greece returned to 16th place in the overall index, from 18th place six months ago.

The index assesses the world’s top 40 economies and ranks them in terms of the attractiveness of renewable energy investment opportunities. The GDP-adjusted index gives a more objective picture of reality, capturing the performance of countries relative to their economic size, as the core index, by its nature, rewards the world’s strongest economies, which due to size they also have the largest RES markets.

The report notes that Greece’s installed renewable energy capacity has doubled over the past four years, with green energy now accounting for 50% of electricity generation. At the same time, it adds that high energy prices and government support lead to the creation of local energy producing communities.

The report also comments on the improvement in Greece’s ranking in terms of bilateral power purchase agreements (PPAs), with the country climbing from 26th to 21st place in the relevant index. It is also noted that although the number of relevant agreements in Greece remains relatively small, the emerging market of corporate PPAs shows signs of growth. As in many other markets, large industrial and IT conglomerates dominate the buyer list, however, the report notes, interestingly, PPAs were also signed by wider public sector organizations.

Investments in clean energy worldwide, according to the research, despite last year’s increase reaching $1.8 trillion, including $660 billion for RES, still falls short of what is needed to meet the COP28 target. Network congestion and high capital costs also hamper progress at a time when the pace of investment must accelerate.