Germany’s RWE and Greek state-owned utility PPC are currently building five solar farms totaling 210 MW at a former lignite mine in Greece’s Macedonia region. The plants will be operational by the end of the first quarter of 2024.

Meton Energy S.A., a joint venture owned 51% by RWE and 49% by PPC, announced in a press release that it has signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) for three of the five solar farms currently being built. The Greek power utility Heron is the buyer, according to the statement. The press release did not state the capacity of the three PV plants, but it says that the PPAs range from 10 to 12 years and concern about 192 GWh of solar energy per year.

The PPAs mark a new beginning for the Greek energy market, given they are to be developed subsidy-free. This segment of the Greek solar market is still in its infancy. In the initial years of renewable energy development, renewable power plants were remunerated based on feed-in tariffs. Greece later moved to renewable energy remuneration via premium tariffs, set competitively via auctions. But the RWE-PPC joint venture is Greece’s boldest and most mature move towards subsidy-free energy to date.