The letter addressing the Greek Prime Minister takes a dramatic tone saying that further to the one third of the Greek solar PV sector jobs lost so far in 2013, an extra third could also be lost by the end of this year too if measures to curb this trend are not adopted.
The solar photovoltaic sector, through HELAPCO, told Samaras that the industry has created thousands of jobs in the country and attracted significant investment from domestic and foreign sources, at a time when Greece is hit by a huge economic crisis and the highest unemployment rate in Europe.
In 2013 alone, writes HELAPCO, the photovoltaic sector invested in Greece 1.5 billion. Overall, during the last five years, HELAPCO adds, the sector invested in Greece 4.5 billion.
The Hellenic Association also reminds Samaras that the solar PV market created 20,000 direct and 30,000 indirect jobs, benefiting about 100,000 Greek households. Specifically, HELAPCO says there are 38,000 residential consumers and 14,000 companies that have invested the last year's in the domestic solar market.
At least a 40% of the services, materials and components used in photovoltaic installations, HELAPCO writes to the prime minister, are produced domestically by Greece's tax payers who work in around 60 different kinds of jobs. Given a series of measures imposed on the Greek photovoltaic market, such as a retroactive levy, the freeze in receiving new projects applications and the FIT cuts, HELAPCO expresses fears that Greece's PV success might soon be irreversibly lost.
Greece added an impressive 801 MW in the first quarter of 2013, however new installations in the second quarter have plunged to 148 MW.
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