Turning point: Greece meets 100% of energy demand with renewables

Renewables have now overtaken natural gas as the biggest share of the country’s energy mix

Last week, for the first time ever, Greece was able to cover all its energy needs with renewable energy. The country’s power transmission operator IPTO announced that on 7 October, renewable energy production reached a new all-time high of 3.106 megawatts, powering the entire country for full five hours.

This is a huge symbolic victory for green energy production and a turning point for the Greek energy grid. It shows that green energy is a possible and viable, carbon-free alternative, that can have a significant impact on a large enough scale.

The turning point in the Greek energy mix

Greece has slowly been increasing the proportion of renewable and green energy and as of 2022, according to a recent publication of The Green Tank, it has become the largest share in the local energy mix. This comes amidst a massive natural gas in the European Union and renewables, excluding hydropower, have overtaken gas as Greece’s main energy source.

According to The Green Tank’s data, in August 2022 renewables produces 13,238 gigawatts of energy, while fossil gas sat in second place with 13,150 gigawatts. This comes after a stable decline of lignite coal power sustained from a peak in 2012 and a continuous rise in natural gas usage.

In fact, renewable energy production has been rising at a steady pace since 2013, though it only overtook gas this year.

At the same time, Greece has now almost stopped importing energy, as imports sat at just 1912 gigawatts in the first 8 months of 2022. In fact, the Mediterranean country has become a net exporter, which has led to an unfortunate rise in coal production in the last two years.

Yet, according to the data, the total production of green energy in the country, renewables plus hydro has yet to outpace the total output of fossil fuels. This year, green energy accounted for 16,262 gigawatts, while all fossil fuels accounted for 17,144.

Nevertheless, the time when Greece is able to reach the Fit for 55 goals of the EU (producing more than 55% of energy through green sources) seems to be in sight way sooner than 2030. Furthermore, Greece was able to raise renewable energy production from 42% to 46% from 2021 to 2022.