Law 1559/85: Regulation of alternative forms of energy and specific issues of power production

This law regulates matters concerning alternative forms of energy and special matters concerning the production of electricity from conventional fuels, among other things. It allows third parties to produce a limited amount of electrical power from renewables energy sources. Production is essentially limited to the satisfaction of producers needs and any surplus energy can only be sold to the Public Power Corporation (PPC), not to third parties. The capacity of grid-connected renewable energy power plants of auto producers cannot exceed three times the total installed capacity of the producers equipment/energy needs when the resource is wind, solar or hydro; for geothermal energy the limit is twice the installed capacity and for cogeneration to the same capacity. In accordance with Law 1416/84 local governments can produce with the aim of selling all production to the PPC. As a result of this law, the PPC installed 24MW and local governments 3 MW of renewable energy capacity through to 1995.