A cooperation agreement in support of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) was signed on Thursday between Greece, Germany, Spain and Slovenia, within the framework of the International Feed-In Cooperation two-day meeting.

Through this agreement Greece becomes formally a member of the international initiative aimed at promoting the use of clean energy sources.

The declaration was signed by Environment Minister George Papaconstantinou who underlined that an effort is being made focusing on the promotion of investments that contribute to the country’s economic and environmental recovery.

Papaconstantinou stressed that the success of the initiatives already undertaken is reflected by the RES produced energy that corresponds to roughly 2.4 GW up 28 pct in the first nine months of 2011.

The International Feed-In Cooperation is a joint project between Germany, Spain, Slovenia and now Greece. The four countries are convinced that feed-in tariffs are most suitable to effectively and efficiently promote renewable energies for the generation of electricity.

A feed-in tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies. This is achieved by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers, typically based on the cost of generation of each technology.

For instance, technologies, such as wind power, are awarded a lower per-kWh price, while solar PV and tidal power are offered a higher price, reflecting higher costs.