The government is "pursuing the transition to national energy independence at the least possible cost," Environment and Energy Minister Thodoros Skylakakis told parliamentary committees reviewing the revised National Energy and Climate Plan.

The key to achieving energy independence, he said, is "to create a very large fleet of renewable energy sources (RES)." The Plan "will lead us to very low prices, to great exports of electricity, and to a gradual replacement of petroleum. 

This replacement will allow Greece to become a clean exporter, Skylakakis stressed, and a large exporter of electric energy, in order to have a consistently low energy prices and a much healthier foreign balance of trade.

RES will create very low prices, he told the committees. "But it will also create a very high fluctuation in prices at times," he also pointed out. "This does not just relate to the day - already, during the day in wholesale we have a difference of more than 100 euros between the time RES work en masse from when they do not. It does not relate to the season alone - we have periods when we produce [energy] in spring, when we will all know that our prices are very low because demand is much lower, and RES work fully, it will also relate to times of investment cycles," the energy minister noted.