Greece’s solar producers are facing mounting budget cuts that are reducing revenues and increasing interest in energy storage, even as regulatory and financing issues slow its implementation.
A recent seminar in Thessaloniki, Greece – organized by Pospief, the Greek Association of Solar Energy Manufacturers – focused on the challenges and growth opportunities in the country’s solar and energy storage markets.
The main challenge facing Greek PV producers is the increasing curtailment of solar energy.
Pantelis Biskas, professor at the Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, told the Pospief seminar that his team’s research shows that Greece will have to curtail between 3.3 TWh and 3.7 TWh of renewable energy by 2026. This represents an increase of approximately 75% compared to 2025, when the country curtailed approximately 2 TWh of green energy. In 2024, Greece limited only 900 GWh of renewable energy.
Renewable sources, including large hydropower plants, met 56% of Greece’s electricity demand in 2025. The country generated approximately 51 TWh, of which approximately 25 TWh came from solar parks and wind power plants. Renewable energy curtailment accounted for about 7.5% of total renewable energy generation last year, and this is expected to rise to 12% by 2026.
Pospief President Giannis Panagis said Greece has curtailed 184 GWh of renewable energy so far this year, compared to just 3 GWh in the same period last year. Curtailments typically take place between 9am (EET) and 4pm, mainly affecting PV generators.
Several speakers at the seminar noted that the curtailment figures do not take into account periods when the wholesale electricity market operates at zero or negative prices, when PV generators either receive no payment or have to pay to inject power into the grid.
According to Panagis, this situation has led to the transfer of more than 2,200 solar parks in the past two years.
Thalia Valkouma – president of Faria Renewables SA, a developer of sustainable projects in Greece and abroad – said last year’s curtailments caused around 20% loss of revenue for Greek PV producers. Many investors and some banks are now combining PV projects with energy storage to create new revenue streams.
However, few domestic banks are willing to finance storage projects. Biskas described a visit to three of the four major systemic banks in Greece on energy storage financing; all three refused. He explained that banks do not have reference projects for the Greek market and fear that profits will stagnate after 2030, when the system will have sufficient battery capacity. He argued that domestic banks will be the last to embrace energy storage.
Greece conducted three battery storage tenders in 2023, 2024 and 2025, awarding 900 MW of subsidized capacity. To date, none of these projects are operational. Some facilities have been built and tests are being conducted to ensure smooth participation in the electricity system and market.
Meanwhile, local investors are focusing on one 4.7 GW program for stand-alone utility-scale projects with priority grid connections, operated in merchant style without subsidies.
The Greek government has also allowed the installation of batteries next to existing or newly planned PV parks. These batteries can be charged via solar panels and supply stored energy to the electricity grid.
The Pospief seminar showed that energy storage is emerging as a solution to increasing restrictions and shrinking PV revenues. Batteries could alleviate grid congestion, free up transmission capacity and even reduce industrial electricity prices, Biskas said. However, he warned of persistent market risks.
Domestic energy demand has been flat for several years, despite the recent economic and energy crises. The penetration of electric mobility is low and is not expected to increase significantly over the next five years. Greece exported around 3 TWh of electricity in 2025 – modest compared to annual demand of 51 TWh. New grid lines connecting the mainland to the islands could increase demand by 2.5 TWh to 3 TWh by 2030, but overall electricity demand is unlikely to change significantly over the next decade. Reduced solar curtailments will not come from increased energy demand.
Regulatory uncertainty also poses risks for energy storage, Biskas said. Although a framework exists, grid operators, the Ministry of Energy and the regulator have been slow to align and implement common policy goals.
Valkouma agreed, noting that while the framework for energy storage has been established, many crucial details remain incomplete. For example, current regulations do not allow aggregators to represent batteries in the energy market.
Greek PV and storage investors must weigh the best strategies to deal with the curtailments and whether banks will finance batteries amid a slow regulatory process and uncertain market outlook.
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