Greece’s Green Energy Boom Faces a Harsh Reality Check

10:23 17/4/2025 - Πηγή: Dikaiologitika

What was once seen as the future of Greece’s energy landscape is now approaching saturation, and risks are emerging not only for the energy sector but for the financial system that supports it.

For years, Greece’s green energy

transition has been a poster child for the country’s modern ambitions. Rapid investment in renewable energy—primarily solar and wind—combined with a surge in battery storage projects, painted a picture of a nation quickly shedding its fossil fuel dependence. But beneath the surface of this green revolution, cracks are beginning to show. What was once seen as the future of Greece’s energy landscape is now approaching saturation, and risks are emerging not only for the energy sector but for the financial system that supports it.

The problem lies in a growing mismatch between supply and demand. While investment in renewables has skyrocketed, actual energy demand in Greece has remained stagnant—and at times, even declined. The country now finds itself with a glut of projects vying to connect to a grid that simply can’t handle them. Greece’s energy transmission and distribution infrastructure has not kept pace with this rapid growth. Without significant upgrades, even fully permitted and technically mature renewable projects are at risk of being sidelined, unable to deliver power to the system.

This grid bottleneck is the "elephant in the room" for Greece’s energy policy. Projects continue to accumulate grid connection terms, but many are unlikely to ever be built.

Meanwhile, some that do exist face increasing curtailments—forced reductions in the amount of electricity they can supply. It’s an outcome that undermines the very rationale for investment in renewables and places growing pressure on a market already strained by inconsistent regulation and a lack of strategic prioritization. Political decisions in recent years have worsened the situation. Without a mechanism to prioritize projects based on technical readiness, network value, or national importance, connection approvals have often been handed out indiscriminately, distorting both grid planning and investment logic.

This evolving crisis is not just an energy issue—it’s a financial one. Greek banks, which have embraced green lending as a path to sustainable growth, now face growing exposure to an overheated market. Renewable energy loans were initially underpinned by predictable revenues and favorable tariffs. But as curtailments rise and grid delays mount, the risk of underperforming or delayed projects grows. If these projects fail to generate expected income, borrowers may struggle to service their debt. In extreme cases, even the collateral—such as a solar park—may prove worthless if it cannot sell its electricity.

Storage projects, seen as a natural complement to renewables, are also under threat. A simultaneous flood of battery installations could erase the price differentials they rely on to remain profitable. Without those margins, revenues collapse, and project viability disappears.

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