Many renewable plants are able to cope with adverse weather conditions and extraordinary climatic conditions. Only a few plants can face and overcome turmoil of the global economic crisis and bureaucratic accidents. This is the case of our Greece wind farm Kafireas, whose construction started a few days ago after a waiting time of seven years. It is located in the southern part of Evia, a mainly mountainous island in the Aegean Sea, which offers also vast fertile plains suitable for cultivation and breeding of oxen and sheep. In 2010, we started the project planning, which had to cope right from the beginning with several accidents, both bureaucratic and economic. At the beginning there was need to adapt to the strict local standards by several technical interventions, which required at the same time changes of the licenses already obtained, extending the waiting time. Then it came to the economic crisis in the Hellenic country, which was at its top in 2015 when the Capital Control was introduced, an intervention that caused further delays regarding the project funding. "It required tremendous efforts in order to achieve the prolongation of the statutory period for the completion of construction. These problems have been overcome in the first half-year of 2017 and the project got the building permission." Georgios Papadimitriou, Area Manager East Europe & Egypt An “epic” effort Kafireas is going to be put into operation within the first trimester of 2019. Once completed, the power plants installed capacity will be 154MW, becoming the country’s largest wind park. “We are of course proud of this record which stands for EGP’s consolidation within Greece- explains Georgios Papadimitriou – The wind farm is going to be equipped with a high-voltage (150kV) interconnection line to the continental network, including aerial, underwater, and subterranean cables. The plant’s annual production capacity will amount to approximately 483 GWh, meeting the annual energy needs of around 129 thousand Greece households and avoiding at the same time each year the emission of 433 thousand tons of CO2”. "Despite the ongoing regional and international economic crisis, EGP launched an investment of 300 Million Euros Kafireas, which constitute, for half, local value added." Due to an investment of this dimension, Kafireas is extremely important for the local communities and for the entire country, giving an important contribution to both, the economic and the social development of the local population. Greece’s renewable future After years of construction downtime, Enel Green Power operates in Greece a plant that represents 50% of the company’s installed capacity within the entire country. This is an important fact not only because of the numbers, but also because of the people participating in this project, which ushers in a new creative epoch in a country which as shown within the last years to be more and more renewable. "Greece, just like other European countries, brings investments in the renewable energy sector already forward for some time. The construction of Kafireas ensures the country more and more a greener future." Georgios Papadimitriou At the same time as the development of wind and photovoltaic energy is at the edge, Greece offers several opportunities in the geothermal and hydroelectric sector, without neglecting the increasing innovation concerning the retail sector: such as photovoltaic retail (net metering), energy services and e-mobility.
