Sub-Practice Energy & Energy Technology.

Development of a solar or wind project in Greece generally requires production licensing or registration before the Greek energy regulator (RAE), together with environmental permitting, land use approvals and a grid connection offer from the relevant network operator. The exact requirements and thresholds depend on the project's size and technology, and the sequencing matters as much as the substance — securing land rights and environmental approval before the licensing application is finalised, for example, avoids delays that are common when these steps are treated as independent workstreams rather than a single coordinated process.

A power purchase agreement (PPA) is the contract under which a generator sells the electricity a project produces to a supplier, offtaker or, increasingly, directly to a corporate buyer. It sets the pricing mechanism, the volume and delivery terms, curtailment and grid-availability risk allocation, and the term over which the arrangement runs. A well-structured PPA has to be drafted with genuine reference to the project's grid connection terms and technical output profile — a PPA negotiated in isolation from those realities tends to create disputes later, once the project is actually operating.

Greece has operated various support mechanisms for renewable generation and, more recently, energy storage, including feed-in premium and auction-based schemes, and EU-linked funding programmes that periodically open for specific technologies. Availability and terms change over time and depend on technology and project scale, so compliance is not a one-off exercise — it requires the project to be structured correctly to qualify at the outset and to be administered correctly for as long as the scheme's conditions apply.

Grid connection requires a connection offer and agreement from the relevant Greek transmission or distribution operator, which sets the technical terms, timeline and cost allocation for connecting the project to the network. Availability of grid capacity in a given area is often the practical constraint on a project's timeline, more so than the underlying licensing itself, and securing a connection offer early — and understanding what it actually commits the project to — is one of the more consequential steps in the development process.

It depends on the nature and scale of the activity. Some supply and distribution arrangements can be structured through a distributor or local partner without the supplier establishing a Greek entity, while direct installation, service or long-term contracting relationships often make a local presence — whether a subsidiary, branch or joint venture — the more practical structure. Having worked inside a global energy technology supplier expanding across multiple markets, we advise on which structure actually fits the supplier's commercial model rather than defaulting to the most conservative option.

EV charging infrastructure in Greece involves a mix of energy regulatory requirements — registration as a charging point operator where applicable, grid connection for the charging installation — and the more conventional real estate and commercial arrangements needed to site, install and operate the equipment, such as site leases and hosting agreements. Projects that treat the energy-regulatory side and the site-contracting side as a single coordinated process tend to move faster than those that address them separately.