Greece to use revenue from solar project to pay debt, EU says
Greece will use future revenue from the country?s ?Helios? solar energy project to cut debt by as much as 15 billion euros ($21 billion), euro-area leaders said.
?Greece commits future cash flows from project Helios, or other privatization revenue in excess of those already included in the adjustment programme, to further reduce indebtedness of the Hellenic Republic by up to 15 billion euros with the aim of restoring the lending capacity of the European Financial Stability Fund,? European leaders said in a joint statement received Thursday by e-mail.
Named after the ancient god of the sun, Helios is a 20 billion-euro project that plans to attract investors to Greece to install as many as 10 gigawatts of solar panels by 2050. The country aims to secure a framework agreement with European partners for the project by the end of the year, Environment, Energy and Climate Change Minister George Papaconstantinou said in an interview October 7.
The project will allow Greece to export clean energy to north European countries enabling them to meet European Union requirements for power sourced from renewable energy, Papaconstantinou told German investors on September 5.
Euro-area countries agreed early today on a package to deal with the region?s debt crisis including boosting the firepower of the EFSF, a temporary rescue fund for member countries in difficulty, to 1 trillion euros and persuading bondholders to take 50 percent losses on Greek debt. [Bloomberg]
