The legislation on electricity production from renewable energy sources (law 3468/06 and its amendments) regulates a series of licenses from various authorities. To form an overall picture of the procedure a list of the main required licenses follows:
- Production license. The license is granted by the Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Change (MEECC) after the opinion of the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RΑΕ) and after the submission of a Preliminary Environmental Assessment (PPE).The producer may be excluded by this specific license in case the production unit is of low power, as specified by law. In order to be excluded the interested person must apply for a RAE permission.
- Installation license. The license is granted by the General Secretary of the region in which the plant is to be installed or by MEECC (for plants that belong to a special category). It is necessary to submit an Environmental Impact Assessment (MPE) and possibly apply for various other permissions (e.g. planning permission).
- Network connection license. It is granted by the Hellenic Transmission System Operator (DESMHE).
- Power sales agreement. It is a statutory standard contract between the Public Power Corporation (DΕΗ) and the energy producer.
- Operation license. The license is granted by the authority competent to grant the installation license after the opinion of RAE.
We note that there are several intermediate procedures such us the submission of a bidding offer to DESMHE for the producer‘s connection to the network which precedes the application for the issue of the environmental conditions approval (ΕPΟ) in the final stage before the production license. Finally the authorities provide the producer with a temporary network connection after which a certificate of the successful completion of the pilot phase is issued in order to be granted the official operation license.