Plans aplenty, but where’s the juice?
Just one thing can be said about Greece’s energy policy: Plans abound but there is little electrical current. The plethora of investment plans for the production of photovoltaic energy were aimed more at the fat subsidies than meeting the country’s real energy needs. Neither consumers nor the aspiring entrepreneurs have emerged as winners, but rather the middlemen, the engineering design firms which have received between 15,000 and 20,000 euros for each of the 8,000 studies submitted to date. The problem is not that the permit issuance process has stalled. In any case the proposals submitted were five times the Development Ministry’s targets. The problem is the alternative process, for the ministerial decision does not clarify whether all the applications will have to be resubmitted anew, or whether they will be assessed on the basis of different criteria. And all this after living last summer with the fear of blackouts, while this year – because of the strikes – things look even gloomier.
