By Costis Stambolis
The last year or so has seen some spectacular progress in wind power applications worldwide. According to latest figures released recently by the European Wind Power Association (EWEA) and its American counterpart AWEA, some 7,000 MW of new installed wind capacity was added during 2002,increasing generating capacity by 28% last year, bringing the total world wind capacity to 31,000MWs, enough to power 7.5 million American homes or 16 million average European homes. This is an all time high in terms of installed wind electric capacity and clearly shows that wind energy for power generation has matured as a technology which is compatible to main stream thermal power applications. By comparison one should note that Greece’s total interconnected electricity network is just above 11,000 MW and that a modern, nuclear power station accounts on average for 1,000 MW.
The Global Scene
In terms of investment the new wind capacity installed globally during last year accounted for euros 6.8 billion which is indicative of the sizeand growth potential of the market.”This is just the tip of the iceberg; the global wind power market could be worth euros 25 billion a year by 2010.Wind power currently meets 0nly 2% of total european electricity demand. That share will increase rapidly as the technology continues to develop, costs continue to fall, and the need to secure and diversify energy supplies becomes increasingly evident to decision makers,” says EWEA chief executive Corin Millais.
“Wind energy grew by 10% in the United States in 2002, a good performance given the poor state of the US energy market and the stop and go, and stop again policy signals directed at our industry”, says AWEA executive director Randall Swisher. “With steady supportive policies, wind power could grow at a sustained pace closer to that of Europe, and provide well over 6% of US electricity by 2020”.
Global wind power has quadrapled over the past five years,growing from 7,600 MW at the end of 1997 to more than 31,000 MW at the end of 2002, an increase of over 23,000 MW. Wind is the world’s fastest growing energy resource, with installed generating capacity increasing by an average 32% annually for the last five years. 93% of the additional wind power capacity installed in 2002 was in Europe and the United States, and worlwide 90% of capacity is found in those two regions.Analysis by EWEA shows that there are no technical, economic, or resource limitations for wind power to supply 12% of the world’s electricity by 2020. Today wind power supplies approximately 0.4% of world electricity demand. With stronger political commitments worlwide, the wind energy industry could install an estimated 230,000 MW by 2010, and 1.2 million MW by 2020.
Over three-fourths of the world’s wind power is presently generated in Europe, and the region again fuelled the bulk of last year’s growth, an achievement which is largely driven by EU’s commitment to developing renewable sources of energy. A total of 5,871 MW ,worth euros 5.8 billion,was installed in EU countries alone in 2002. Total wind capacity in the region grew 33% to 23,056. As can be seen in the attached table
the countries with most wind capacity are mostly European with Germany -by far the largest,with just over 12,000 MW- followed by Spain, the united States, Denmark, and India.
The Situation in Greece
Against this phenomenal worldwide progress in wind power applications Greece appears to lag seriously behind inspite of consistent efforts over the years to develop this abundant energy resource. The story of modern wind energy development in Greece goes back to the late 70’s and early 80’s, a period during which PPC, the country’s electricity monopoly utility, started installing pilot wind farms and conducting extensive wind regime surveys all over Greece in order to identify the country’s wind power potential. It must be noted that Greece enjoys Europe’s largest wind potential per se with hundreds if not thousnds of historic wind paths where steady and strong wind flows are in evidence throughout the year. Up until recently,and certainly in the 1930’s Greece still had in operation more than 3,000 stone built sail windmills, both inland and on the islands, which were used for wheat grinding.As late as the early 60’s there were literally thousands,one estimate talks about a minimum of 30,000 units,of metal type windmills,of both Greek and USA origin, used for water pumping.
Until 1994 wind applications in Greece were limited to a handful of wind farms developed and operated by PPC and few individual wind generators installed in some islands to provide supplementary electricity, mainly to small industries and hotel complexes.Then the government against stiff opposition from PPC introduced legislation,in line with EU practice, enabling private companies to set up and operate wind farms and obliging PPC to purchase at fixed prices the generated electricity output.This lead to the opening up of the market and in the next six years, until 2000 Greece saw some impressive developments in small to medium size wind farm projects.Some 200 MW of wind installed capacity was installed with wind farms appearing mainly on the island of Crete and in South Evia. However, the relatively fast pace of wind farm development came to a complete stop last year as a combination of negative factors came to the fore thus bringing the whole market to a complete standstill.Although the negative factors that have plagued the Greek wind market for sometime have not vanished, the market strted moving early this year with significant new capacity being added on an almost monthly basis.
New Wind Farms
Few weeks ago, Greece’s wind power capacity was given a tremendous boost with the commissioning of four new wind farms in Thrace, in thenorth east, with a cumulative wind capacity of 55 MW.Thisnewaddition now brings thte total installed wind capcity in Greece to almost 330 MW. These four wind farms located on mountain ridges at an altitude of almost 1000 m in the prefectures of Rhodopi and Evros, some 60kms north of Alexandroupoli, were officially inaugurated on April 12 by Development Minister Mr. Akis Tsochatzopoulos. This unique wind farm consists of 59 windgenerators of latest technology, mostly built by Danish firm NEG-MICON,each with a capacity of approx. 900 Kw and with a wing diameter of 52 m. The total investment amounted to 62.0 million euros and covered the construction of the wingenerators,acess roadworks,extensive underground cabling,several electrical substations and high voltage cable connections to the main PPC grid some 25 kms away. The wind farms were erected in record time of 10 months and were developed by a consortium of two Greek companies consisting of DAMCO Energy SA and International Construction SA. The windfarms are owned and operated by the consortium which is currently developing a further 17,5 MW of wind capacity in the same location. The generated electricity is sold entirely to PPC
At prices which are determined by the Ministry of Development according to law 2244/94 which outlines the conditions of setting up and operating a wind farm in Greece.(PPC buys wind generated electricity at approx.21 drachs per kwh in the mainland and at 25 drachs per kwh on the islands).
In addition to the DAMCO wind farms a few more are underway in Evia, Crete and in Thrace where large Greek construction companies, including TERNA SA and ROKAS SA,are now constructing wind farms whose total capacity is likely to exceed 150 MW. Gradually Greece is winning the lost ground in wind power but it remains unclear whether a satisfactory pace, in line with developments on other EU countries, can be set.
Disincentives Drive Away Investors
Greece’s Regulatory Energy Authority (RAE),which now has all the responsibility for licensing new wind installations, has so far issued 220 licenses corresponding to appprox. 1,800 MW of wind capacity. However, only a very small part of these new installations is likely to be build over the next few years because of the problematic situation that most investors face with Greek beurocracy. As it was recently pointed out in Kathimerini (see) there are several serious non technical obstacles which hinder progress in this field and disuade potential investors from Greece and abroad.One of the most serious problems is the government red tape and the endless number of permits, certificates,and heavily stamped paperwork that one has to obtain before even starting to think about construction. One investor recently measured 41 signatures in 39 different documents. It is one of the modern day Greek wonders how a relatively simple and straigthforward licensing process was inflated out of all proportions as a result of the habitual insecurity and avoidance of responsibility which has permeated all tiers of present day Greek society.Not to mention the totally corrupt public services where it is customary for civil servants to earn a double salary by adminestering little and not so little favours to everybody who happens to cross their government path.
If redtape was not enough wind power investors have to face a mostly un cooperative PPC which steadfastly refuses in most occassions to extend its grid to suitable wind locations. There have been several instances where PPC has demanded from the investors to finance themselves the construction of substations and cables which when completed become the property of the electricity utility. To add insult to injury, lately there has been a persistent trend in several local authorities which happen to be near and not so near wind farm locations to demand, and in most cases to succeed, of blocking wind farm construction on dubious environmental grounds. According to wind energy experts Greece is capable of developing 3,000 to 4,000 MW of wind capacity and thus meet some 25% to 35% of its electricity requirements from wind energy and winning at the same time substantial environmental benefits.Although there is a clear pro renewable energy government policy several underlying negative factors, steming from personal or even ill conceived group interests,prevent the large scale development of wind energy thus depriving Greece from an indigeneous and limitless energy resource.