Gilles Bouder: “Greece has the potential to become a powerhouse for the whole Europe”

Ahead of his participation in the “Delphi Economic Forum Paris III” in Paris on February 5, Gilles Bouder, Vice President of HDF Energy, the pioneering French company that leads internationally in the development of large-scale hydrogen infrastructure and high-power fuel cell technology with subsidiaries in Greece and Cyprus, speaks to NEA SAVVATOKYRIAKO about the company’s plans for the Greek market. With the plans for 2026 focused on HDF Energy’s strategy regarding energy autonomy and de-reliance on fossil fuels for non-interconnected islands, Gilles Bouder explains the role that locally produced hydrogen can play in terms of mobility on the Greek islands, highlighting Greece’s role as the right environment for the development of hydrogen-based power plants. He also underlines the common strategic vision of Greece and France regarding energy security, while at the same time highlighting Greece’s upgraded role on the energy map under the new, fluid geopolitical backdrop, seeing in our country the potential to become an energy superpower for the whole of Europe.

What are the next steps in the context of the Greek-French energy relationship and cooperation?

Both countries have built a good cooperation in the energy sector Both countries share a common strategic vision around energy security, decarbonisation and industrial competitiveness. France and Greece benefitted from each other skills & expertise, for example with Paris Mouratoglou being at the origin of some of the major french Renewable IPPS, and in return many French developers participating in the deployment of clean power in Greece. The next steps lie in scaling up joint investments in clean energy infrastructure, particularly in renewable electricity, hydrogen, and energy storage. France brings strong industrial know-how, technological depth and project-financing capabilities, while Greece offers a unique combination of renewable potential, geographic positioning and access to key regional markets. In this context, cooperation increasingly focuses on concrete projects, regulatory alignment and long-term industrial partnerships rather than isolated initiatives. Among other topics, Greece and France share the same challenge of the decarbonisation of non-interconnected islands that not so many EU countries have, so I see a strong cooperation being built around this.

How do you assess Greece’s role in the energy map of the region, what role could it play in the future and do you think that the broader geopolitical instability affects energy plans?

Greece has evolved into a key energy crossroads for Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. With exceptional resource of wind, sun and now gas, Greece has the potential to become a powerhouse not only for neighbouring countries but also for the whole Europe. Greece is strengthening interconnections, stabilizing the power grid of the region and planning to be connected to the European hydrogen backbone, which -creates more commercial possibilities for more renewables into the regional system.

Geopolitical conditions have reinforced Greece’s strategic relevance. Energy planning today must incorporate security, technological resilience, diversification and flexibility as core principles, in order to reduce exposition to this instability. This favours countries like Greece that can combine domestic clean energy production with regional interconnectivity. To take full benefit from the situation, Greece should engage fully in the next phase of the energy transition with the deployment of integrated renewable energy that allows for dispatchability, to keep up decarbonizing while the bottleneck of grid expansion is resolved. This is the role HDF Energy seeks to play, with the development of hybrid power plant using hydrogen as on site storage for reliable and dispatchable baseload electricity delivery.

One of the axes of HDF Energy’s strategy in Greece for 2026 includes the goal of full energy autonomy and de-reliance on fossil fuels for non-interconnected islands. On which islands are you focusing your interest and is this a project that will be completed within the year?

For non-interconnected islands, energy autonomy is both a technical and strategic priority. The islands for which the interconnection to the mainland electricity network is challenging are particularly dependent from imports of fossil fuels, and in consequence see their cost of generation skyrocket, becoming a heavy tribute to taxpayers. This was the situation before the construction of our CEOG project in Guyane, and we will indeed inject the first electrons to the grid in a few weeks. In Greece, HDF Energy focus is on the islands with such high energy costs, strong renewable resources and long-term energy demand stability. A lower cost of energy is the first benefit from our projects, but our Renewstable concept is designed to allow possible use of the hydrogen for other uses than power generation. We can imagine that tomorrow, hydrogen produced on site may become the fuel for the island mobility. We want to demonstrate that French technology can provide a credible pathway to greater autonomy and reduced reliance on imported fossil fuels and are progressing on several sites. A key prerequisite for our success is regulatory and commercial clarity, most importantly, setting the right pricing framework that can enable bankability and long-term predictability. In parallel, we are actively open to partnerships with local and international players, because solutions for island systems are, by nature, multidisciplinary and best delivered through strong consortia.

Greece is increasingly discussed as an important node in Europe’s emerging hydrogen and clean-energy ecosystem. How does this positioning relate to HDF Energy’s focus on hydrogen-to-power solutions, and how do you see Greece’s role evolving within a regional electricity and energy-security context?

In our market positioning, hydrogen is not only viewed as a commodity to be produced and exported, but as an energy carrier that can be used to generate firm, dispatchable electricity through our fuel cell technology, particularly where power systems face constraints related to intermittency, security of supply or isolation. In that sense, Greece’s relevance lies less in hydrogen volumes and more in system-level characteristics. The country combines strong renewable potential, structurally constrained power systems in certain regions, and a growing role in regional electricity interconnections. These factors make it a suitable environment to deploy hydrogen-based power generation assets as part of integrated energy systems, rather than as standalone export-reliant and offtake-critical hydrogen projects.

Looking ahead, Greece could play a constructive role in demonstrating how integrated renewable and hydrogen-based power generation systems can enhance the stability and resilience of electricity networks, whether on islands, in remote grids, or, over time, within interconnected regional markets. This evolution will primarily depend on appropriate regulatory frameworks and market signals that recognise and remunerate system services such as flexibility, adequacy and security of supply. Under those conditions, hydrogen-to-power solutions can move from early project deployments to broader replication across European power systems.