The EU executive approved the €1.4 billion plan, which will be partly financed by the nation's Recovery and Resilience Fund from the bloc, paid out as part of Europe's post-Covid recovery package.

Approving the scheme under EU state aid rules, the commission yesterday said the incentive on Crete would consist of premium payments to generators merely to bridge the gap between clean energy generation costs and wholesale electricity prices, with the premiums adjustable in line with technology costs on a “sliding” basis.

For the 46 other islands spread across all of the plan's 29 electricity networks, incentive payments will be determined by auction bidding by renewables developers.