October 26 (SeeNews) - Greece intends to double the capacity of its power interconnections with Italy, North Macedonia and Bulgaria by 2030, while the capacity of similar links with Albania will triple over the same period, Greek energy minister Kostas Skrekas said.
The plan is part of Greece's strategy to implement critical infrastructure so as to boost the country's energy competitiveness and provide energy supply alternatives, Skrekas said at the Western Balkans Summit held in Berlin earlier this week, according to a press release published by the Greek energy ministry on Monday.
"Greece is turning into a regional hub for the transfer of green energy. The renewable energy sources (RES) market share will exceed 46% this year and may well reach 60% in the next three years," Skrekas said.
The country plans to install 2 GW of new green energy projects by the end of 2022, four times more than it connected to the grid over the last four years, he added.
Greek energy group Hellenic Petroleum, which is rebranding to Helleniq Energy, told SeeNews earlier this week that it will aim to install 2 GW of renewable capacity by 2030.
According to Skrekas, the market test for the natural gas pipeline between Greece and North Macedonia has been completed. The pipeline is expected to be ready for commissioning by the middle of 2025 and will be also fully ready for carrying hydrogen.
Last year, Greece's independent transmission grid operator IPTO proposed to invest 4.1 billion euro ($4.1 billion) in interconnection and energy storage projects by 2031.
In July, Greek industrial conglomerate Mytilineos signed a contract to build a new high-voltage overhead transmission line, part of the planned new Greece-Bulgaria electrical interconnection which will boost transmission capacity to 800 MW in the direction of Greece to Bulgaria and to 1,350 MW in the Bulgaria-Greece direction.
($ = 0.99915 euro)