Energy communities and self-production are the main institutional tools for the active and meaningful participation of citizens in the energy transition. The 8η review of Green Tank analyzes the latest data from GEMI and DEDDIE and records the main developments in the institutional framework and parliamentary control.
The main findings of the analysis are summarized as follows:
Energy communities
- Small change in the number of energy communities: There are now 1,747 energy communities of all legal forms in Greece. There has been a decrease of 6 in the number of the two newer legal forms established by Law 5037/2023 (-7 in KAEs and +1 in EKP) compared to the situation in April 2025.
- «Freeze» on applications for new projects: Only 18 new applications for energy community projects since March 2025 and 76 since January 2024, 62 of which are for self-generation projects.
- Little progress in the electrification of projectsThe capacity of energy community projects in operation (30% of total applications) reached 1,465 MW, up from 1,397.5 MW in March 2025. More than half of the new power connected relates to self-generation projects, with their electrified power amounting to 101.4 MW.
- The power of canceled projects increased much more: It reached 2,482.6 MW (50.81% of total applications), an increase of 352 MW compared to the situation in March 2025.
- Central Macedonia wins the championship: It has the most energy communities (297) and the highest installed capacity (354.5 MW), but also the most canceled projects (682.6 MW).
- The two negative records of Western Macedonia: For every 1 MW that is electrified, approximately 3.6 MW are canceled, while 88.7% of the canceled power concerns projects that had previously received notification of inability to connect from HEDNO.
Self-production
- Broke the 1 GW barrier: Total project capacity at 1,072.6 MW self-generation in operation, increased by 135 MW compared to March 2025.
- Slowdown: 4,728 new applications for self-production projects in the first nine months of 2025, while in the same period of 2024, almost three times as many (12,901) had been submitted.
- Slow transition from net metering to net billing: The 90% of the power applications for new self-generation projects from the introduction of the new mechanisms (2/10/2024) until September 2025 concern projects of simultaneous and virtual simultaneous offsetting. However, the validity of electrified projects under the new mechanisms is only 2 MW (7.7% of total self-generation capacity), while only 16.5 MW of these relate to applications made after the Joint Ministerial Decision came into effect (October 2, 2024).
- Projects eligible for funding in transition regions: In areas eligible for funding under the Just Transition Program 2021-2027, there are 25 MW pending virtual energy and virtual simultaneous netting projects with a connection contract, and another 16.95 MW of less «mature» projects with the same mechanisms.
- In search of additional electrical space for self-production: The sum of the power of pending self-production projects and that of electrified projects reaches 1,844 MW, thus approaching the 2 GW that is the electrical space for self-production projects, as provided for by Law 5037/2023.
«The data clearly show that the transition from net metering in net billing significantly slowed down applications for self-generation projects, especially from energy communities. The government is called upon to reverse this negative dynamic, which limits the meaningful participation of citizens in the energy transition, by increasing the available electricity space to 3 GW and directing national and European resources—such as the Social Climate Fund– towards supporting self-generation and energy communities.», said Nikos Mantzaris, policy analyst at Green Tank.
