Residential photovoltaic systems in Greece and in other European countries: a comparison and an overview

One of the most promising renewable energy technologies (renewable energy sources, RESs) is photovoltaics (PVs). PVs are a truly elegant means of producing electricity on site, directly from the sun, without concern for energy supply or environmental harm. They represent a favorable case: easy and fast installation, low maintenance requirements and the ability to produce electricity on site within the urban built environment. In that sense, there is a growing consensus that PVs for individual buildings, known as building integrated or applied PVs (BIPVs or BAPVs, respectively), will be chief among the continuously widespread distributed PV applications. Still, they suffer from the disadvantage of their very high initial cost compared to other renewable and conventional energy technologies, although this has been steadily reduced during the last 5 years. It is therefore evident that without the support of suitable instruments, the expansion of solar electricity worldwide would not take place at a satisfactory pace. Various effective support mechanisms have been adopted, within which feed-in tariff (FiT) proved to be the most successful for PVs. That is the case also in Greece, where the PV market in the building sector grew rapidly after 2009, due to the great FiT incentives granted particularly for residential applications. In this paper an overview is provided, accompanied by a comparative feasibility study regarding residential PV systems’ prospects, based on the review of all kinds of incentive schemes in EU for small-scale BAPVs.