Birbili presents energy projects
The Environment and Energy Ministry yesterday announced a very ambitious program of investments in the «green» economy, totaling 44.44 billion euros by 2015 and aiming at the creation of over 210,000 jobs, of which 27,000 would be permanent. The energy sector is set to cover most of the development effort in the public and private sectors with a total investment of about 32 billion euros and the creation of some 169,000 jobs. This concerns a broad range of investments, from interventions for saving energy and exploiting renewable energy sources to pipelines for the transmission of natural gas and storage facilities for natural gas, to power interconnectivity for the islands as well as expansion of domestic consumption of natural gas to more regions of the country. They also include private investments in electricity production and the modernization of the Hellenic Petroleum installations to the tune of 1.6 billion euros. Nevertheless, while many of the energy investments that Minister Tina Birbili presented yesterday to concerned parties are in the planning stage – for instance natural gas storage – others, such as the electricity producing plant at Astakos in western Greece, are controversial. Others yet, such as the interconnections with neighboring countries for the transmission of natural gas, depend on external factors.
