Greece’s proliferation of wind farms is coming up against local resistance
Credit: By Marina Rafenberg (Athens (Greece) correspondent). Published on February 2, 2024, at lemonde.fr ~~
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At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis underlined his government’s renewable energy ambitions. “We hope that in the medium term, Greece will become a green energy exporter. We want to exploit wind energy, with a focus on the Aegean,” he declared in mid-January.
Athens has pledged to invest a third of the €31 billion or so of the post-Covid-19 European recovery plan toward the fight against climate change. A large portion will be devoted to non-polluting energies, as the conservative government’s aim is for green electricity to reach 80% of total production, up from the current level of less than 30%. By 2023, 153 new wind turbines had been connected to the grid, corresponding to investments of over €600 million.
However, for several years now, in the north of Greece and on the Cycladic islands of Andros and Tinos, movements called the Free Mountains have been mobilizing against these installation projects. In Agrafa, in the mountainous center of the country, in 2019, the government had to send in the police to escort bulldozers who had come to install hundreds of wind turbines.
In the face of opposition, the government is not backing down, announcing new plans for wind farms on islets and offshore. By 2050, around 1,150 280-meter-high wind turbines are to be installed at sea, notably near Alexandroupoli (north-east), off Crete and Corfu. But the project is provoking strong reactions.
‘A catastrophe for the ecosystem’
In Crete, the Lassithi hoteliers’ association believes that “the installation of 75 wind turbines […], just one nautical mile [1.8 kilometers] from the coast, will create strong shocks for the local economy and society. […] For nine years, there would be a construction site in an area of outstanding natural beauty internationally renowned for its luxury tourism.”
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