After two years of elaboration a new legislation was enacted in 2006 in Greece, providing an appealing feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme for photovoltaics (PVs). The response of the market was immediate with more than 7947 licenses having been submitted in less than 2 years' time. The effectiveness however of an incentives' scheme cannot be judged solely by the response of prospective investors. Aim of this paper is to present and discuss a quantitative assessment of this newly introduced FiT law in Greece, with respect to its attractiveness to investors, its effectiveness towards launching a new market, its cost efficiency and its ability to lift non-economic barriers that led to significant delays in the diffusion of RES over the last 10 years. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.