No Greek plan for low-carbon energy supply

ATHENS – The lack of a structured long-term plan to reduce emissions is hurting Greece’s climate change credentials and the satisfaction caused to Greek environmental organisations by the decision of the Ministry of Development to ban the construction of hard-coal units five months ago has given way to deep concern.
Bellona, 28/06-2009
According to the Greek Public Power Company’s (PPC) operational plan for 2009-2014 (download the PDF to the right) the utility company would cover the country’s increasing electricity needs by constructing two lignite units, two hard-coal units and two natural gas units. Now that the hard-coal units have been cancelled it remains to be decided how they are going to be replaced.

According to Chrysa Liagou’s article, published in the credible Kathimerini newspaper “given the ban of hard-coal, PPC would have to move towards further investments in natural gas and lignite (…) further investments in the use of natural gas is in practice impossible, though due to high uncertainty regarding the capacity and the security of supply.”

That subsequently means that declarations concerning more investments in lignite, which is a mineral extracted domestically, should be expected soon, as it appears to be the only credible way to cover the gap in the energy mix caused by the decision to ban hard-coal.

Investments in alternative energy have also been very few due to the lack of a coherent state strategy to support such plans, as well as because of overwhelming obstacles posed by the Greek bureaucracy. Yet as a local expert underlines “renewable energy cannot become the backbone of the energy mix any time soon as there is no infrastructure to make use of produced energy.” Wind energy, for instance, cannot be stored.

The fact that there is no ability yet to rely on renewable energy as well as the lack of any plan to deal with emissions caused by the country’s mid-term dependence on coal by engaging in a serious discussion to promote CCS technology only underlines the lack of a coherent strategy regarding Climate Change. As many environmentalists point out Climate Change measures taken reflect only instinctive reactions to rules imposed by the EU and international agreements.

In a country that resents the idea of appearing as a laggard in taking strict climate change measures there has been no report on a national strategy for Climate Change since 2003 (download the PDF to the right). Furthermore there is no official prediction on how the Greek energy mix should be formed by 2050.

The only relevant report issued by the Ministry of Development in consultation with the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) and the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES) offers an energy plan only until 2020. This report holds that the main pillars of the national effort to reduce emissions would be to replace old coal plants with new more effective ones, to take advantage of the country’s climatic potential by investing on a wider deployment of photovoltaics and to increase the import of natural gas.

Besides the fact that this report does not provide the much needed long-term answer to Greece’s Climate Change strategy it fails to offer a solution regarding dealing with emissions produced by lignite plants that will cover in the mid-term the country’s needs for energy.

As the international pressure will mount on Greece to adjust its energy strategy to the critical need to reduce emissions the lack of any such plan proves the inability of the political leaders to grasp the gravity of the issue. An organised attempt to discuss CCS technology in Greece, in particular whether CO2 can be safely stored in Greece, and present a real project proposition entailing economic and technological aspects would be a move towards developing a realistic plan to reduce emissions that would provide a credible answer to concerns posed by the country’s mid-term dependence on coal.