Pursuant to the provisions of Law 4014/2011 as in force, projects of both public and private sector are classified in two basic categories (A’ and B’) based on their environmental impact.
* Category A’ includes projects which may cause significant environmental impact and for which an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is required. Category A’ is further divided into subcategory A.1 including projects which may cause very significant environmental impact and subcategory A.2 including projects which may cause significant environmental impact.
* Category B’ includes projects which may have local and non-adverse impact to the environment and for which an EIA is not required.
Depending on the classification of a RES project, the respective producer should follow either the procedure for the issuance of the Environmental Terms Approval (ETA) which is required for projects included in Category A’ along with the conduct of the relevant EIA or the Standard Environmental Commitments (SEC) procedure in case of projects that fall under Category B’.
By virtue of the said Law, the Ministerial Decision (MD) no. 1958/13.01.2012 (OJ B’ 21/13.01.2012) was issued, pursuant to which projects are divided into twelve (12) Groups in line with the above two basic categories of the Law. The MD has been amended several times over the years i.e. by the MD no. 37674/2016 (OJ B’ 2471/10.8.2016), as amended by the MD no. 2307/2018 (OJ B’ 439/14.02.2018) with the most recent amendments being made by the MDs no. 74463/4562 (OJ’ B’ 3291/06.08.2020) and no. 17185/1069 (OJ B’ 841/24.02.2022).
By a petition filed before the Council of State by several associations in 2020, the annulment of the MDs no. 74463/4562 and no. 17185/1069 was requested and in particular of those provisions related to the environmental licensing classification of wind, photovoltaic (PV) and hydroelectric stations, which are included in the 10th Group (“Renewable Energy sources”), as violating the relevant EU and national legislation.
To this end, the Council of State, following the examination of the amendments introduced by the MDs in question for their compliance with the applicable legislation, ruled the annulment of the provisions related to the environmental classification of wind, PV and hydroelectric stations. In its judgment, the Council of State observed that the environmental classification of wind, PV and hydroelectric stations, as amended by the MD no. 37674/2016 (which was the environmental licensing regime in force prior to the issuance of the said MDs), has undergone amendments multiple times within a short period and that projects that were previously classified in a higher category/subcategory were henceforth classified to a lower one or even exempted from environmental licensing, without such changes being justified, either within the context of these MDs or by a prior relevant scientific study.
In light of the Council’s of State judgment, on 27.12.2023, the Ministry of Energy issued a notice stating that as of the date of its publication i.e. 25.10.2023 and until the issuance of a new Ministerial Decision, the environmental classification of the stations in question shall be governed by the MD no. 37674/2016 as amended by the MD no. 2307/2018. Consequently, the following currently apply in relation to PV and wind stations:
* PV stations with installed capacity ≥ 2 MW and ≤ 10 MW shall be included in A.2 subcategory i.e. an ETA is required for these projects (under the annulled MDs these projects were included in Category B’ for which a SEC was required).
* PV stations with installed capacity > 0,5 MW and ≤ 1 MW shall fall under Category B’ i.e. they will be subject to SEC (under the annulled MDs these projects were exempted from environmental licensing).
* PV stations with installed capacity ≤ 0,5 MW are exempted from environmental licensing.
* Onshore wind stations with installed capacity > 5 MW and ≤ 10 MW shall be included in A.2 subcategory i.e. an ETA will be required for these projects (under the annulled MDs these projects were included in Category B’ for which a SEC was required).
The editorial team