Law 5299/2026 puts binding time limits on administrative licensing and creates acceleration areas. Here is what changes in practice, with the provision behind each deadline and what the headlines leave out.
Last updated: · Also in Greek: Ν. 5299/2026: οι νέες προθεσμίες
| What | Deadline | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental screening in an acceleration area | 30 days, 20 for repowering, from completion of the file | art. 10, adding art. 7B to Law 3468/2006 |
| Total administrative licensing inside an acceleration area | 12 months onshore, 24 offshore | art. 12, adding art. 7Δ(1) and (2) |
| Repowering, or projects up to 150 kW, inside an acceleration area | 6 months onshore, 12 offshore | art. 12, art. 7Δ |
| Licensing and connection outside acceleration areas | 2 years onshore, 3 offshore | art. 13, adding art. 4A to Law 4951/2022 |
| Projects up to 150 kW outside acceleration areas | 12 months onshore, 24 offshore | art. 13, art. 4A |
| Final Connection Offer | three years, with complete applications for the Connection Agreement and the Installation Licence required within its validity | art. 14(2), replacing art. 5(16) of Law 4951/2022 |
It was published in the Government Gazette (ΦΕΚ Α΄ 67) on 5 May 2026. For developers, the change is twofold. Upper time limits now apply to the administrative procedure, inside and outside acceleration areas. And the validity terms of the Final Connection Offer change.
Acceleration areas (Περιοχές Επιτάχυνσης) are created by art. 9, which replaces art. 7A of Law 3468/2006. They are designated by ministerial act with a strategic environmental assessment, and they form a subset of the areas already mapped as necessary for photovoltaics and onshore wind. Sensitive areas stay out, subject to the exceptions the law itself sets.
In practice this means one thing: the law alone does not tell you whether your parcel is in an acceleration area. The designation act and its map decide. The mapping refers to ΥΠΕΝ/ΔΑΠΕΕΚ/144627/3247/2025 (ΦΕΚ Β΄ 7365). So check the act that covers your site before you build a schedule on the fast cycles.
Megalopoli shows what such an act looks like. Ministerial decision ΥΠΕΝ/ΔΝΕΠ/89999/3073 (ΦΕΚ Β΄ 5002/07.08.2026) designated three acceleration areas inside the core of the Megalopoli lignite phase-out zone, about 179 hectares in total, for photovoltaics with or without storage. Environmental licensing of projects there follows the new art. 7B, that is, the screening regime described below. The same act also shows what designation does not solve: licensing starts only after ΡΑΑΕΥ issues a decision lifting grid saturation, on the recommendation of the competent grid operator (with a reservation for self-consumption stations).
Inside an acceleration area, environmental screening closes in thirty days, or twenty for repowering. Note where the clock starts, though. It runs from the moment all the required information has been submitted, that is, from a complete file, not from the first filing.
Screening does not exempt you unconditionally from environmental assessment. If unforeseen adverse effects emerge, the project moves to the further assessment the law provides.
Inside an acceleration area, the administration as a rule has twelve months onshore and twenty-four offshore to complete licensing. For repowering and projects up to 150 kW, the limits drop to six and twelve months respectively. Any reasoned extension has its own conditions.
This time does not include construction, the duration of major grid upgrades, or pending court proceedings. These are administrative clocks, not a commitment to a commercial operation date, and they do not translate into a delivery promise to a lender.
For other renewable and high-efficiency combined heat and power (ΣΗΘΥΑ) projects, licensing and connection may not exceed two years onshore and three offshore. Projects up to 150 kW run on twelve and twenty-four months.
The starting point depends on the regime. For ordinary projects, the clock runs from the application for a Producer Certificate. For exempt projects, it runs from the application for environmental licensing. Standalone storage stations raise an issue: the heading of the provision mentions storage, but the general paragraph refers to renewables and ΣΗΘΥΑ. A blanket two-year limit for standalone BESS therefore needs confirmation, and we do not present it as certain.
Article 15 adds paragraph 8 to article 33 of Law 4951/2022 and sets a ninety-day deadline. It covers only the photovoltaic stations of point ιστ) (the sixteenth point) of paragraph 1, a single, specific category of exempt stations.
So there is no general ninety-day rule in PV licensing. If you see it presented that way, first check whether the project actually falls under point ιστ).
Article 14(2) replaces article 5(16) of Law 4951/2022. The three-year term remains, but within it you must now have filed complete applications for both the Connection Agreement and the Installation Licence. If the licence is issued while the offer is valid, the offer and the agreement are extended until the licence expires, on the milestone conditions the law sets.
The details of these deadlines, together with the Producer Certificate cycles and the environmental terms decision (ΑΕΠΟ), are in the renewables permitting calendar.
MitOS, by Ariadne Labs, keeps a separate clock for each regime: inside or outside an acceleration area, ordinary or exempt station, onshore or offshore. Each requirement carries the provision it comes from, so when the law changes you can see at once which projects it touched.
A short demo on the real stages of your projects, with Law 5299/2026 already built into the route.
In the Government Gazette, ΦΕΚ Α΄ 67, on 5 May 2026.
The law does not decide that; the designation act and its map do. The areas are designated by ministerial act with a strategic environmental assessment (art. 9). For Megalopoli, the three areas and their maps are in ΥΠΕΝ/ΔΝΕΠ/89999/3073 (ΦΕΚ Β΄ 5002/07.08.2026).
No. The article 15 deadline covers only the stations of point ιστ) of article 33(1) of Law 4951/2022.
No. Construction, major grid upgrades and the time taken by court proceedings do not count.
This page summarises provisions for information and is not legal or technical advice for a specific project. The provisions were checked in the original on 2 October 2026, and the Megalopoli act on 20 October 2026. Only the official publication in the Government Gazette is authoritative. Acceleration-area designation acts, transitional provisions and special regimes are always assessed per project.
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