The first appeals against TERNA for the wind farms in Kythira have been filed

Frontal clash over the plans for the installation of three wind farms of Terna Energy in Kythera: On Monday 21 July 2025, the first applications for the annulment of the producer certificates issued by RAAEY (formerly RAE) for these installations in the northwestern part of the island were filed at the Athens Administrative Court of Appeal. Behind this legal initiative stand the Municipality of Kythera, the KIPA, the Property Committee and dozens of citizens, who are asking for the cancellation of the permits, pointing out that the Peloponnese network is already saturated and that the certificates have been issued in violation of the law.

In addition to the serious environmental objections that were raised en masse during the public consultation, the project in question is considered by the applicants to be technically unfeasible, since it cannot be connected to the National Electricity Transmission Network. At the same time, the Kythera Citizens' Action complains that the administration is allowing the licensing process to proceed while an appeal to the courts is pending, thus demonstrating a wider institutional inertia or tolerance.

The society of Kythera, with three simultaneous strategic moves - administrative, environmental and legal - seeks to block the implementation of Terna's plans, claiming the institutional protection of its natural and cultural wealth. The Athens Administrative Court of Appeal is now called upon to rule on the legal validity of RAAEY's producer certificates in a network that has already reached its limits.

Here is the press release:

PRESS RELEASE - KYTHERA CITIZENS' MOVEMENT

On Monday 21-7-2025, applications for the annulment of the producer's certificates for the three wind farms of TERNA ENERGY in the northwestern part of the island were filed at the Athens Administrative Court of Appeal by the competent lawyer. It should be recalled that there had been previous applications for review to the Regulatory Authority for Waste Energy and Water (RAEY, formerly R.A.E.), which were implicitly rejected by the Authority. The applications for annulment involve the Municipality of Kythera, the Kythira Foundation for Culture and Development (KIPA), the Commission for the Inherent Property of Kythira and Antikythera and a number of citizens.

It should be stressed that the licensing procedure for category A1 projects, such as this complex of three wind farms, is as follows:

1. Request of the company to RAAEY (formerly P.A.E.)for the issuance of a renewable electricity producer certificate (formerly electricity generation licences). This is an initial ‘feasibility permit’ for the project. This step took place in  2009.
2. Issuance of a producer's certificate by RAEAY. The initial production licences were granted in 2020and the producer certificates which have replaced them in the 2024.
3. Installation permit from the Ministry of Energy and Environment. The Environmental Authorisation of the project, part of which is the submission of an Environmental Impact Study by the developer and the public consultation of the (expired 19-7-25)together with the electrical interconnection of the project with the National Electricity Transmission System (NESMIE) and the securing of the land for the implementation of the projects ensure the INSTALLATION PERMIT.

We should also stress that the Greek legislation, in order to speed up the licensing procedures for RES projects allows investors to take the necessary steps to obtain an installation permit while applications for review and cancellation are still pending on the producer certificates received from RAEAY. In other words, the procedures are not ‘running in sequence’ but in parallel.

The complex of three wind power plants of TERNA ENERGY in addition to all the endless errors made and submitted to the Electronic Environmental Register during the public consultation of the Environmental Impact Assessment, it also has important legal issues on the producer certificates issued by RAEAY and referred to in the recently filed applications for annulment.

 The most important legal issue is that the Peloponnese grid is now saturated for new RES projects. This means that wind farms, for example, even if built, will not be able to inject the energy to be produced into the ESMIE. In order to address the important problem of grid saturation mentioned above, the Independent Electricity Transmission System Operator (ADMIE) planned and launched a series of «expansion» projects which essentially consist of the construction of new High Voltage Centres (HVDCs) and two new 400kV transmission lines, with the aim of «connecting» the Megalopolis substation with the Distomo substation and then with the Acheloos substation (Western Corridor) on the one hand, and with the Corinth substation and then with the Koumoundourou substation (Eastern Corridor) on the other. However, neither of these two corridors have been fully completed. However, even under the condition of completion of both of the above Corridors, the capacity margin of the wind farms to be built in the Peloponnese and able to be connected to the ESMNO already amounted to only an additional 17 MW of wind power as of March 2021 and concerned wind farms that had (anyway) long since received Final Connection Offers.

Simply put, the A/P complex under consideration will not be able to connect to the ESMEE, even when the above-mentioned network «extension» projects, i.e. the Western and Eastern Corridors, are finally completed.

Over time the legislature ban the granting of former Production Licences and current Producer Certificates (simple or Special Project) in the Peloponnese as a whole, as well as in any other saturated network. THE RAAEY incorrectly has issued producer certificates for the complex of three wind power plants of Terna on the island and now the Athens Administrative Court of Appeal is called upon to decide.

So the island as a whole is putting pressure on the administration and asserting its right in three different and very distinct ways:

1. Claims the signature of the Special Environmental Study by the competent Secretary General of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, which will exclude the implementation of the three wind farm complex.
2. Accepts the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)submitted in May by TERNA ENERGY in the emphatic way that was shown in the public consultation closed 19-7.
3. Claims the ANNULMENT from the Athens Court of Appeal the producer's certificates of RAAEY issued illegally because the Peloponnese electricity network is saturated as mentioned above.

We thank all those who have supported over the years the legal fight that is being given and is constantly paying off, by depositing money to the special account for the wind farms of the Kytherian Foundation for Culture and Development (KIPA), out of which all legal costs and expenses in connection with at least 20 pleadings so far.