Drawing on recent joint analyses by The Green Tank on energy communities, Stelios Psomas and Nikos Mantzaris explain in their article “Supporting energy communities by citizens in lignite regions” why regulatory and financial interventions are needed to strengthen the role of the institution.
Making note of recent developments at EU level and commitments at national level for the financial support of energy communities, they also focus on trends in the country’s lignite regions, as well as the growing problem of grid availability.
Significant focus is directed to the first call for self-production projects for energy communities in transition regions, activated by the Just Development Transition Program 2021 – 2027, with a budget of €41.795 million, of which €26.845 million is reserved for energy communities in lignite regions.
The authors highlighted that while this marks a positive development, the call excludes energy communities by citizens and small to medium-sized enterprises, indicating a need for an additional announcement to include them as beneficiaries.
Seeking additional solutions, they present the key findings of the analysis “Energy communities: Solutions for strengthening renewables-based self-production of electricity by citizens in lignite areas” and conclude with two key recommendations:
- allocate public funds for expansion of grids and storage systems and
- provide state guarantees for energy communities using virtual net metering.
The op-ed was published on 20 March 2024 and is available on clima.gr (in Greek).
