2.1. Law 3851/2010 on Accelerating the Expansion of Renewable Energy Sources to Combat Climate Change

(Replaced and supplemented Law 3468/2006 since June 2010.)

Note: The provisions of Law 3851/2010 on accelerating the expansion of Renewable Energy Sources to combat climate change replace and supplement the regulations of Law 3468/2006, which was in force until its entry into effect and provided the legal framework for the generation of electrical energy from Renewable Energy Sources. Large parts of these regulations still apply today, meaning the provisions of this law continue to apply to the extent that they have not been replaced or amended. Furthermore, a considerable number of licenses were issued under these provisions. These latter licenses are still in circulation and are even offered for sale to interested investors. For these reasons, the presentation of these provisions appears to be of particular importance at this point.

The essential changes and regulations of Law 3851/2010 will therefore be presented below.

National Targets

National targets of the law are:

the participation of energy produced from Renewable Energy Sources in the gross final energy consumption at 20%
the participation of electrical energy produced from Renewable Energy Sources in the gross consumption of electrical energy of at least 40%
at least 20% of electricity generation from RES shall serve the consumption of heating and cooling by the year 2020
at least 10% shall serve the final energy consumption in means of transport (biogas). In comparison, Germany is at 20%.

2.2.1 Approval Procedure

The production of electrical energy from Renewable Energy Sources still requires a license. In modification of the previous law, this license is no longer granted by the Minister of Economy, but directly by the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE). This license is still granted based on the criteria outlined in the law. The latter criteria, for example, national security, public health, energy performance, project maturity, technical installation maturity, compliance with national spatial planning regulations, hardly differ from the previous criteria; rather, only a few additions are to be noted.

2.2.1.1. Changes to Law 3851/2010

The following changes have occurred in detail:

Determination of the Connection Point
The determination of the connection point as well as the manner of connection by the RAE in cooperation with the System and Grid Operator or with the Operator of the non-interconnected islands must take place within 20 days from the submission of the request. The performance of this act must take place before the granting of the license and is at the discretion of the RAE.
Processing Period for Granting the Production License
The RAE investigates the existence of the criteria as well as the prerequisites for granting the license within 2 months from the submission of the application or the completeness of the submitted file. The submitted file is considered complete as soon as no further documents are requested in writing within 30 days.
Publication of the Decision on the RAE Homepage
The decision is published on the RAE homepage and delivered to the Minister of the Environment. Publication in a daily newspaper must also take place. The Minister is granted a period of 20 days for review. Within 15 days from the publication on the RAE homepage, an objection can be lodged against the license if there is a legal interest. This objection must be reviewed by the Minister of the Environment within 20 days. After the fruitless expiry of this deadline, the objection is deemed rejected.
Entries in the Register
The decisions are furthermore maintained in a register.
Financing of Projects
The persons who secure the financing of the project do not have to be the same person as the license holder. However, they must first be reviewed by the RAE regarding their financing capability according to the above criteria and subsequently, provided the prerequisites are met, included in the license with their data.
Term of the Production License
The license is granted for a duration of 25 years, and can be extended for the same period. Within 30 months from the granting of the Production License, the so-called Installation Permit must be obtained, otherwise its validity expires. Extension applications for this purpose are possible under certain conditions and before the expiry of the aforementioned deadline.
Amendment of the Production License Data
If the license data changes, the license must be adjusted accordingly. For this purpose, the license holder must submit an application for change to the RAE. This application will be decided within 60 days from its submission. The decision is also published and entered in the register. In addition, cases are provided for which no application for change is required, e.g., if the installed capacity or the maximum generation capacity of the plant connected to the system or the grid increases by 10%. The exceptions regulated in Art. 3 Para. 5 nevertheless include a notification obligation.
Transferability of the Production License
The license holder may, after corresponding permission from the RAE, transfer their license to other natural or legal persons, provided that all criteria mentioned in Art. 1 are met. The deadline for obtaining the Installation Permit is not extended hereby!
Effect and Consequences of the Production License
Obtaining the Production License is a prerequisite for acquiring the other permits up to the connection to the grid. It does not exempt the license holder from obtaining all other permits provided for by law.
Exceptions from the Licensing Obligation
Exempted from the obligation to obtain the license just mentioned are those project operators who want to operate photovoltaic plants with a capacity of up to one (1) MW. This applies to the entirety of the plants operated on a single plot of land by one and the same project operator. In the latter case, the remuneration is based on the total output of all plants, meaning that not every plant on the same plot of land is billed separately.
For the latter category of plants up to 1 MW, it is further stipulated that these plants (!) may not be sold before their commissioning. By way of exception, these may be sold to legal persons, provided that the share capital of the acquiring company is fully owned by the transferring company.
Subsequently, the System and Grid Operator DESMIE (after application) must carry out all necessary activities for the connection of the plant, unless a technical reason justifies the refusal.
In practice, however, the transfers of projects are now also accepted by the competent authorities (DEI and DESMIE) even before the connection and commissioning of the plant. The project rights can be transferred to a third investor during the transfer of the shares of the project company. A prerequisite for this is, among other things, that the tax number of the project company does not change. For this purpose, the procedures provided for by the respective competent authorities must be adhered to. Until the connection of the plant, the DEI is responsible for the aforementioned procedures.
After the connection and commissioning of the company, the transfer of company shares and/or the change in the corporate structure is possible at any time and in compliance with the procedures provided for this purpose. The competent authority in this case is the DESMIE.
When signing the contract with the DESMIE, the latter authority checks the ownership rights of the applicant company to the plot of land on which the plant is to be installed.
In areas where energy generation is “saturated” / restricted, plants of the present category are preferably favored. In addition, it should be noted here that the approval procedure for PV plants up to 1 MW has been considerably simplified, meaning that the entirety of the licenses intended for projects from 1 MW is not required. For projects up to 500 kW, there are also a number of license exemptions, so that, as a result, the approval procedure has been significantly accelerated. The fact that the approval procedure in these cases was withdrawn from the area of responsibility of the RAE and placed directly under the responsibility of the DEI naturally promotes the shortening of decision-making paths sustainably.
No Expert Opinion with regard to Environmental Compatibility
The previous expert opinion on the initial evaluation and initial assessment of environmental compatibility is no longer a prerequisite.
The Installation Permit
The Secretary-General of the Region (*Peripherie*) is responsible for granting the Installation Permit. This must be issued within 15 days from the completion of the review procedure. However, this review must have been carried out within 30 days from the application date.
After the Production License has been granted by the RAE, the following licenses and documents must still be obtained for the granting of the Installation Permit:
1. An offer for the connection to the grid
2. Decision on Environmental Compatibility (EPO)
3. A permit from the Forestry Office, if required, as well as any other permit that is prerequisite for the rights of use to the plot of land.
Granting of the Grid Connection Offer
The DESMIE (or the DEI) issues the connection offer within 4 months from the application date, which becomes legally binding from the time either the EPO Decision or the corresponding Negative Certificate regarding the non-requirement of the environmental impact assessment (for plants up to 500 kW) is issued. The final connection offer is valid for a duration of 4 years and binds both the DESMIE and the holder.
From the final offer date, the entitled party is obliged to take all other steps, namely the granting of the Installation Permit and the signing of the contract with the DESMIE.
Granting of the EPO (Decision on Environmental Compatibility)
For the granting of the EPO, a comprehensive file and a so-called environmental study must be submitted to the competent authority.
The decision on environmental compatibility must be issued within 4 months from the submission of a comprehensive file, if the prerequisites are met. The file is considered fully submitted if no further documents are requested in writing within 20 days from the submission of the documents. The validity period of this decision on environmental compatibility (environmental requirements) is 10 years and can be extended one to two times for the same period if the application is submitted up to 6 months before the expiry of the validity period. Overall, it should be noted that the procedure for issuing the Decision on Environmental Compatibility (EPO) is now carried out within the framework of the procedure for granting the Installation Permit, meaning it has been postponed in time.
Term of the Installation Permit
The Installation Permit is also published and is still valid for 2 years. The Installation Permit can also be extended once more for the same period if the statutory prerequisites for this are met.
The Operating Permit
The Operating Permit must be issued within an exclusive period of 20 days and has a validity period of 20 years for PV plants. Extension options are also provided here.
Consequences of Plant Transfer
In the event of a transfer of the plant, the new owner enters into the rights and obligations of the old owner towards the DESMIE. In this case, the Production License is transferred to the new owner by a corresponding decision of the RAE. The competent authority also decides on the transfer of the Operating Permit.
Exceptions for Projects up to 1 MWp
For those PV plants that are exempt from obtaining a license, neither an Installation Permit nor an Operating Permit is required. The environmental impact assessment, including the granting of the decision according to Art. 4, must fundamentally be carried out. Only PV ground-mounted systems with a capacity of up to 500 kW and systems installed on buildings are exempted from this. In these cases, a corresponding Certificate of Exemption from this obligation must be obtained from the competent Region (*Peripherie*) within 20 days. Within the framework of issuing this certificate, in addition to the installed capacity, it is checked whether a plot of land is located in the NATURA 2000 area, or at a distance of less than 150 m from another field for which a permit has also been granted.
Register at the Ministry of the Environment
A register of the issued Installation and Operating Permits is also established and maintained at the Ministry of the Environment. The Production Licenses and any exceptions from this obligation are also maintained in this register.
Further Regulations for Permits up to 1 MWp
For all plants for which, according to the above regulations, no Production License is required (exception permits), an exclusive deadline for connection is stipulated in the connection contracts with the DESMIE. Compliance with this deadline is associated with the imposition of a guarantee payment or a contractual penalty, which is incurred in the event of non-compliance with the deadline. A separate Ministerial Decision yet to be issued will regulate the detailed prerequisites and penalties. Excluded from this are those contracts that were already signed before the entry into force of this law.
The Grid Connection Contract
The contract with the grid operator for the sale of generated electricity is valid for a duration of 20 years. An extension option is possible upon mutual written agreement, provided the Production License is still valid.

The Feed-in Tariffs under Law 3851/2010
The feed-in tariffs for PV plants are as follows:

Year – Month	Interconnected Grid		Non-Interconnected Islands
Year – Month	>100 kW	<100 kW	Non-Interconnected Islands
2009 February	400.00	450.00	450.00
2009 August	400.00	450.00	450.00
2010 February	400.00	450.00	450.00
2010 August	392.04	441.05	441.05
2011 February	372.83	419.43	419.43
2011 August	351.01	394.89	394.89
2012 February	333.81	375.54	375.54
2012 August	314.27	353.55	353.55
2013 February	298.87	336.23	336.23
2013 August	281.38	316.55	316.55
2014 February	268.94	302.56	302.56
2014 August	260.97	293.59	293.59

Every year, the tariffs are adjusted by 25% based on the consumer index of the previous year.
Operators who had already concluded a connection contract and commissioned the plant at the time this law came into force can amend their contract and adopt the feed-in tariff for February 2010 from the table above. In this case, the aforementioned adjustments of the tariff will take place in accordance with the regulations made in this law. Otherwise, the rules of Art. 27A of Law 3734/2009 will apply.

Further Important Changes and Innovations of Law 3851/2010:

The offshore plants are to be increasingly promoted according to the new draft law and are therefore the focus of the new introductions. For this reason, a public tendering procedure is also to be carried out for the latter. The license for these plants is granted by the Minister of the Environment. The individual prerequisites for the installation and commissioning will be determined in Ministerial Decisions yet to be issued. The environmental compatibility procedure must also be carried out for these plants.
Another important change is the redistribution of the special RES fee (3%). Accordingly, a considerable proportion of the revenue from this fee (1/3) is to be allocated partly to the local households of the respective municipality in which the operation of project plants has been approved, and partly to the municipality itself. Essentially, therefore, lower electricity bills are to be issued in the municipalities where the installation of parks has been approved. The remainder of the revenue from the RES fee is to be allocated to the Special (“Green”) Fund for the implementation of regulatory and environmental plans. Within the framework of this legislation, the aspect of communal economic development, environmental protection, and social support gains particular importance.
The operators of plants are exempted from paying this fee.
For land areas that were previously classified as agricultural land with high agricultural use, investment and installation of a plant should now be possible. The permit is only granted in these cases if no more than 1% of these areas in the respective prefecture are used for the operation of such plants.
Furthermore, no Building Permit is required for the installation of the PV plant. However, a permit for carrying out small-scale activities (confirmation) is necessary, the so-called *eggrisi ergasion domisis mikris klimakas*. Exceptions to this principle are regulated by separate Ministerial Decisions and must be determined on a case-by-case basis. This fundamentally depends on the specific construction of the plant.
Separate regulations were also included for the installation of rooftop plants.

2.2.1.3. Summary of Changes

In summary, the following positive changes have been established with the present law:

The direct license award by the RAE as well as the establishment of binding and shortened deadlines for public administration.
Reduction of the bureaucratic procedure from 36-60 months to 8-10 months.
The establishment of an independent authority connected to the Ministry of the Environment for the promotion of RES investments in the form of “One Stop Shops”.
The license award is separated from the procedure for granting environmental requirements and now takes place only in a second stage. The Production License is to be granted by the RAE within two months of application. Plants with limited performance capacity are exempted from this.
The previous environmental procedure, which consisted of two procedural stages, is now unified into one procedure.

(Status: January 2013. All information provided without warranty or liability.)