Many of our customers, especially those looking for building plots outside the villages where they want to build their houses, ask us if it is common to invest in Photovoltaic panels in Greece. Hmmm… If you see drone photos of areas and cities in Northern Europe, you will find that it is full of photovoltaic panels on roofs, garage roofs and factory buildings etc. But in many areas of Greece it is not as common even though in climate zone 1 (there are 4 climate zones in Greece of which 1 is the warmest where Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, Zakynthos, Kefalonia and the Southern Peloponnese are located) have between 230-280 sunny days per year.
Building houses with photovoltaic panels in Greece: a good bet for everyone?
With us down in the south-eastern part of Messenia, new houses are being built everywhere. But most of them are built with traditional inline electricity instead of using photovoltaic panels and only a few solar panels for water heating. And considering that we have about 270 sunny days a year, it feels a bit silly. In addition, you are sometimes without power as it is sometimes switched off due to maintenance, construction work or lightning strikes in the immediate area. Then it might be good to think about installing photovoltaic panels instead. And as always, there are pluses and minuses to investing in a such a project.
The benefits
- Reduces monthly electricity consumption costs immediately
- You become self-sufficient in terms of electricity use
- You are not affected by power outages
- More environmentally friendly
The disadvantages
- The investment costs money and the “payback” will take a few years. If you belong to those who don’t want/can’t wait for the return, it might not be for you
- The investment costs money and if you have a smaller budget when you start your construction project in Greece, it can be discouraging to start. If you belong to those who think they don’t have time to wait and the budget is “screaming”, then this might not be for you
Building houses with photovoltaic panels in Greece: how much does it cost to install a system?
The average cost of a photovoltaic panel system in Greece is about 2.80 Euro per watt. First of all, electricity prices have increased dramatically throughout Europe. After all, the solar cell solution in our area means that you can become independent from the electricity companies thanks to all the sunny days (with a good battery solution you can manage 5-8 days without sun and it is rare that the sun does NOT come out for a whole week). And if you live in the periphery, it can cost a lot of money to connect to the electricity grid, as it costs about 1000 Euro per pole to pull up to your house. And once you have done that, you will most certainly see neighbors taking advantage of this and then connecting to the same poles that you have already paid for except for the last one that goes to their property.
Building houses with photovoltaic panels in Greece: what does it mean to live off grid?
In practice, this means that the house is not connected to the electricity grid and that you produce the electricity yourself. By installing a photovoltaic cell plant, solar energy is stored during the time when the sun is up. On a sunny day, the house can use the electricity directly via the solar cells. The electricity that is not used during the day is stored in a solar cell battery. In the evening, when the sun has set, the stored electricity from the batteries can be used. This means that you can do your everyday chores just as usual with the stored solar energy. This system is thus what is meant by living off grid with solar energy. The fact that you get rid of less energy is of course positive, but you should be aware that it sometimes means that you need to change your lifestyle. You may not have all that electricity to run the dishwasher, washer and dryer and use the stove/oven for cooking at the same time.
We hope you found some answers to your questions and concerns above. Solar energy is becoming an increasingly important part of an energy system. And a lot of new things are happening on the market with, for example, so-called building-integrated solar cells. This means that the building’s facade or roof is the solar cell itself, instead of the solar cell being placed on the roof or facade. There is hope and we smile towards the future more environmentally friendly world.