Greece's famed natural resources of sunlight and wind put the country in a strong position to develop and exploit renewable energy as sources of heat and power.
Greece is turning to the wind and the sun, and to geothermal deposits deep underground, to supplement more conventional sources of energy and thus help mitigate the negative environmental impact of power generation.
Ten-fold increase
Although it already leads the EU in the use of solar energy for water heating, overall only 1% of the country's total energy supply is derived from "renewable resources". But this could rise more than ten-fold over the next decade, according to conservative estimates.
In addition to the environmental benefits, generating energy from solar, wind and geothermal sources offers a solution to the problem of maintaining power supplies to Greece's remote islands, many of which are not connected to the mainland electricity grid.
Power from the sun
While Greece's many hours of sunshine lend themselves to solar energy production, this is presently only exploited for heating water (30% of the EU solar thermal capacity is installed in Greece). Photo-voltaic systems designed to convert sunshine to electricity are still prohibitively expensive. Some systems do exist on the Aegean Islands, and in individual domestic installations, but the total capacity of these systems is still very small. As technology improves over the next five to 10 years costs are expected to decrease, opening up new opportunities for solar electricity production.
Wind energy
Wind energy is also a promising resource in Greece. The islands offer ideal conditions for the generation of wind power, and wind technology is cheaper than photovoltaic solar systems. Wind parks have been established in Crete which is isolated from the mainland electricity grid. Wind installations are appearing on other islands, too, and studies have identified the Aegean Islands, in particular, as having ideal conditions for wind energy generation.
Wind parks have a total installed capacity of 110MW, representing only a small proportion of the potential energy resource. According to the Public Power Corporation (DEH), such installations could generate up to 30% of the Aegean islands' energy requirements, a ten-fold increase on current capacity.
Private investors are beginning to take advantage of financial incentives, provided by the Greek government and the EU, for the setting up of wind-driven power generators. Whilst previously DEH owned the majority of wind stations, private investors now predominate. As the production of turbine equipment develops in Greece, there will be further business opportunities in exports of equipment.
Geothermal energy
Perhaps the most interesting development in the coming years will be in the field of geothermal energy. Scientists are just beginning to explore the potential of natural sources of hot water for energy production and Greece has several sites that are suitable, including on Milos and Nisyros and in Northern Greece. At present the use of geothermal energy is limited to district heating plants and agricultural purposes, such as greenhouses; it has not been used for electricity generation. If it could be, then those natural forces historically linked in Greece with destruction, in the form of earthquakes and volcanoes, could come to provide environmentally friendly energy solutions.
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Note: The definition of "renewable energy resources"
According to convention, small hydroelectric stations and biomass production are referred to as renewable energy sources but large hydroelectric stations and burning of wood for domestic heating are not. Small hydroelectric stations and biomass production make up the greatest part of conventional renewable energy sources in Greece. For biomass production many industries burn agricultural and forestry residue or municipal waste to produce heat. The use of the same fuels to produce electricity is a relatively new development in Greece and new biomass plants are starting to connect to the electricity grid.
Although not renewable energy facilities according to the conventional definition, large hydroelectric stations and domestic wood-burning are often included in statistics. With the inclusion of these two sources, the proportion of total Greek energy supply attributable to renewable sources is over 5%.
