Renewable policies and challenges by 2020 in Greece: A questionnaire survey

Abstract

In a notable change from the position in the past, the Greek government took steps to commit itself to greening the economy and determining policies and actions to boost the utilization of renewable energy. The aim of the paper is, firstly, to present the latest developments on the renewable energy policy in Greece, the current achievements and impediments to the implementation of planned reforms in the accomplishment of its 2020 targets, and the specific policy measures introduced; secondly, to discuss the pace of respective developments in other EU-28 member countries; thirdly, to verify the achievements of the government towards reversing previous bureaucratic, prone-tocorruption procedures through a questionnaire survey and stratified interviews with market participants. Research survey results from our survey and interviews conducted in the second semester of 2014 are respectively presented. The majority of respondents expect to see the targets set in the National Renewable Energy Action Plan reached by 2020. The paper and questionnaire survey have been conducted under the auspices of the European research program THALES, aiming to measure various aspects of the shadow economy and the areas of renewable energy trade and finance in Greece.