LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Greek wind power farms face protest 

Greek environmental groups urged the government on Monday not to grant licenses for wind power parks on two Aegean islands, claiming they would damage the environment and affect income from tourism.

Heavily reliant on fossil fuels, Greece wants renewable energy to cover as much as 20 percent of its overall energy consumption by 2010, with wind parks earmarked for the lion’s share of green power.

Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) is evaluating two separate applications to construct wind parks on the Aegean islands of Skyros and Serifos, but the move has prompted protests rather than applause from environmentalists.

“We are all in favor of wind energy but in both these cases they do more bad than good,” said Kriton Arsenis of the Hellenic Society for the Protection of the Environment and the Cultural Heritage.

RAE’s ruling will be put to the development ministry for a final decision. RAE could not give a timeframe for a final decision on the two parks but said the file for Skyros was more advanced.

The wind parks, if constructed, will damage recognized nature reserves on both islands as well as spectacular views of the white sun-baked houses that are a magnet for thousands of tourists annually, environmental groups said.

“For Serifos the plans are to build dozens of tall wind mills, which will basically ruin the view on the island,” Arsenis told Reuters. “They will be built above the main village, each at a height of over 100 meters, and they will be the first things you will see coming in from the ship.”

Many locals on both islands have opposed the plans, saying they want to protect their main source of income, which is tourism. Tourism accounts for about 18 percent of GDP and roughly one in five jobs.

“It is a huge plant that by itself will cover about 14 percent of the country’s wind energy production target for 2010,” the Hellenic Society’s Daphne Mavrogiorgou said of the Skyros plant. “Some 80 percent of that plant’s land, owned by a monastery, is inside a recognized NATURA 2000 nature reserve.”

Endesa Hellas, a joint venture with Spain’s Endesa and Greece’s Mytilineos, said it will not negotiate with the local community on its Serifos application but would simply await the authority’s decision.

Reuters

Turkish Daily News

13 June 2007

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon