Greece plans to develop some 20,000 hectares of solar power parks in a bid to export renewable energy to Germany reports the AFP.Wracked by debt but blessed with abundant sunshine, Greece plans to develop some 20,000 hectares of solar power parks in a bid to export renewable energy to Germany, a report said on Saturday.
Top-selling Ta Nea daily said the project, which has a tentative budget of 20 billion euros ($29 billion), could create 60,000 jobs at a time when Greece is battling a deep recession and record unemployment figures.
Germany is looking for alternative energy sources after chancellor Angela Merkel's government decided to shut down all 17 of the country's nuclear reactors over 11 years, following the disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan in March.
Greece's Environment Minister George Papaconstantinou discussed the initiative, code named Project Helios, with Germany's deputy economy minister Stefan Kapferer, who was in Athens this week for investment talks, the daily said.