September 8 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said it approved a Greek state aid measure to spend 341 million euro ($341.4 million) on the construction and operation of 900 MW of storage facilities connected to the country's electricity grid by the end of 2025.
The funds will be partly derived from Greece's EU-backed national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), the Commission said in a press release earlier this week.
Prospective developers will be selected through a tender process, with contracts for the selected projects due to be awarded by the end of 2023. The aid will take the form of an investment grant, to be paid during the construction phase of all supported projects, in addition to annual subsidies to be paid during the operation phase of the projects over a 10-year period.
The measure aims to boost the share of wind and solar energy sources in the Southeast European country and to advance targets under the EU Green Deal.
"Increasing available electricity storage capacity in the system is key to make grids more flexible and better prepared for a future in which renewables form the backbone of the decarbonised electricity mix," EU executive vice-president and competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said. She added that the state aid scheme will further the development of competitive markets for electricity system services while helping Greece meet its emission reduction targets.
In April, Greek energy minister Kostas Skrekas said that the country intends to deploy 3 GW of energy storage facilities by 2030 so as to further its goal of achieving a 70% share of renewables in domestic electricity generation.
Greece stands to receive a total of 17.77 billion in grants and 12.73 billion in loans under the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility mechanism.
($ = 0.9988 euro)