Renewable Energy Seen As Key To Greece’s Economic Recovery
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Greece will accelerate the development of a 20 billion euro ($27 billion) solar-energy project named “Project Helios”, after the ancient sun god, said prime minister Lucas Papademos on Tuesday, after the government made investments in renewable energy a “national priority” in order to aid the nation’s economic recovery.
“In the last few years, talk has centred on Greece’s fiscal discipline,” said Papademos, while at a renewable energy and infrastructure development summit in Athens.
Greece will accelerate the development of a 20 billion euro ($27 billion) solar-energy project named “Project Helios”, after the ancient sun god, said prime minister Lucas Papademos on Tuesday, after the government made investments in renewable energy a “national priority” in order to aid the nation’s economic recovery.
“In the last few years, talk has centred on Greece’s fiscal discipline,” said Papademos, while at a renewable energy and infrastructure development summit in Athens.
[quote]“But fiscal harmonization isn’t enough for development. The energy sector gives Greece an opportunity to become a hub for the European Union and third countries,” he said.[/quote]Papademos added the country was hoping to become Europe’s largest exporter of renewable energy by 2050, when 100 percent of the nation’s energy demands would also be met by green electricity.
Project Helios would install as many as 10 gigawatts of solar panels by 2050, said the Greek prime minister, and would be able to cut the nation’s carbon emissions by 80 percent during the same period.
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In addition, Helios would create new jobs for Greek as well as tap new revenue sources, with the entire European continent focusing more and more on renewable energy resources for their future
“The proposal of Greece to develop the Helios project together with other member states and the European Commission has the potential to be truly groundbreaking,” said EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, as cited by BusinessGreen.
[quote]”Greece now has to demonstrate that it is possible to exploit the many hours of sunshine that it enjoys and to translate that into an economic benefit for Greece and those European regions that are not quite as sunny,” he added.[/quote]According to a Ernst and Young Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices report, Greece currently ranks sixth among a group of 35 countries in terms of attractiveness for photovoltaic investments, behind Italy, Spain, China, India and the United States.
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The country is now discussing with the EU on financial mechanisms that could potentially be used to encourage investment in the Helios project. Helios may also use planned project bonds that the EU and European Investment Bank are working on to help companies fund energy infrastructure.
“Investors would see high single- to low double-digit returns,” said Costa Karagiannis of Guggenheim Partners LLC, an adviser to the Greek government on the project, to Bloomberg. “Based on current trends, the tariff would be 12 euro cents or 13 euro cents per kilowatt-hour.”
Germany’s Deputy Environment Minister Juergen Becker was also optimistic on the Helios project, and promised that his nation would share its own experiences with green energy with Greece, while possibly looking at ways to contribute to the project’s funding as well.
“Helios is a way to help Greek economic recovery,” he said. “EU states that want to import Greek solar power should make up any funding shortfall. Germany is looking at how it can contribute to financing Helios.”
The Helios project could reach its full capacity in 10 years if investments are forthcoming, said EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger.
[quote]”Helios is also a unique opportunity to demonstrate that renewable energy technologies like photovoltaics are becoming competitive in the near future through European cooperation. It could be the showcase project on the way to a truly integrated European market for electricity from renewable sources, while simultaneously helping the Greek economy to recover,” he added.[/quote]
