Wind power in Greece tails off
Greece’s construction of wind energy infrastructure has slowed down over the past few years even as other Mediterranean countries have advanced in harnessing this clean technology, experts say. The fact that Greece has an installed wind energy capacity of 938 megawatts, compared to Portugal’s 2,862 MW is «totally disappointing,» Yiannis Tsipouridis, president of the Hellenic Wind Energy Association, told Kathimerini. «Greece has an abundance of renewable energy sources but no political will to exploit it,» Tsipouridis claimed. He said Greece added 114 MW to its installed wind energy potential in 2008, down from 125 MW in 2007 and 173 MW in 2006, despite having installed Europe’s first wind farm on the island of Kythnos in 1982. «Countries with the same problems as us have taken the political initiative to invest in green energy,» Tsipouridis said. Europe increased installed wind energy capacity by 15 percent last year. Germany and Spain lead the field in production with 23,903 MW and 16,754 MW respectively.
