Η Climate Change Conference 2015 (2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11) took place in the suburbs of Paris, Le Bourget, For the first time, the conference ended with an agreement by the participating countries to limit the increase in the Earth's temperature to «well below 2 degrees Celsius» by 2100. On 1 June 2017, the President of the United States announced their withdrawal from the Paris Treaty. Apparently he and his advisors adopt the school of thought that argues that anthropogenic interference in climate change is not that important and that other factors such as the solar activity, the water cycle play the most essential role.

Another school of thought argues, in relation to the energy issue on the Planet and climate change, that with the speed at which the population on Earth is growing and given that resources are finite and more and more people are seeking to live ‘better’, it is impossible to meet these energy needs with Renewable Energy Sources. In the future, and given that other resources are finite (lignite, oil, gas), the only way to produce the necessary amounts of energy is through nuclear fission and fusion. Nuclear fission is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus decays (Retrieved from) in two or more (smaller) nuclei with simultaneous release of energy. Nuclear fusion (plus + Melting) is the fusion of light nuclei into heavier nuclei with simultaneous release of energy. Nuclear fission has been known for many years. Nuclear power plants in operation use this technology, which nowadays has been perfected. The ‘perfect’ nuclear power plant has been designed which uses radioactive waste from the past as fuel and by design the possibility of human error has been minimized.www.terrapower.com). The future of energy, however, is nuclear fusion, which is considered the perfect source of energy because it does not take up much space, has an almost inexhaustible source, is safe, does not pollute the atmosphere with carbon, and leaves no radioactive waste. But of course, as always, there is a difficulty. Fusion is very difficult to do. There have been attempts for 50 years.

One school of thought in relation to renewable energy and more specifically to industrial wind farms concerns their low reliability and efficiency. Having now over 20 years of experience, more and more people are realizing that, as currently implemented, electrically wind is essentially useless to detrimental because its efficiency curve can never be synchronized with the load demand curve from consumers. Their power supply reliability is on the order of 10% (ADMIE - Power Sufficiency Study 2013-2020), they require constantly spinning reserves of expensive CO2 emitting gas plants, and they continually cause larger and larger and costly frequency disturbance problems in the transmission grid, ultimately imposing a financial burden on the end consumer.

In relation to meeting our energy needs as a country, the imports from Western Siberia Russian natural gas, around 6.5 billion m3/year, costs us €2.1 billion. So with the agreement we have made with Russia by 2027 we will export foreign exchange of around EUR 60 billion. RES, German wind turbines 3000 MW and the Chinese photovoltaics 2500 MW, total capacity of 5500 MW, which cost us respectively 6 billion euros and 7.5 billion euros, a total of 13.5 billion euros participated in the electricity generation of our country in a small percentage of their nominal capacity. In contrast to all the lignite plants which have a cumulative capacity of 5300 MW and covered 72% of the electricity needs, RES are an energy investment failure. The imported electricity comes from lignite plants in Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey and from the Italian NPPs using natural gas as a raw material.

Making the assumption - hypothesis that all of the above views NO are moving in the right direction we accept that the unprecedented severity of the climate crisis, which stems primarily from the use of fossil fuels, necessitates the use of renewable energy and in particular RES-E. Our country is required to ‘catch’ the targets of the Paris Treaty and more specifically, in relation to the AESPs (Wind Power Plants) is required to cover 7040 MW of wind power by 2030. Key issues that arise for the country and particularly for island municipalities are the following:

1. The existing special spatial planning framework (Government Gazette 2464B_03/12/08) is now outdated and needs serious revision. The carrying capacity for island local authorities is too high, nowhere is the parameter of height, the wind turbine/living standard ratio taken into account and the distances from residential areas are too short. The licensing of wind farms should be stopped until the updated specific spatial planning framework is ready. In a country that was built anarchically without forest maps and land registry with the known results, we are now coming to zoning AES with the logics ’’WHERE THE WIND BLOWS’. Contrary to European practice, in our country, national, regional and local plans are effectively set aside by the specific spatial plans.
2. The principle established by the Energy Union must be taken into account as the first and decisive criterion of the policy ‘THE POLLUTER PAYS’ This highlights the contribution of large urban centres such as Athens and Thessaloniki as well as islands such as Mykonos and Santorini to RES production.The combination of the imposition of heavier forms of RES in the provinces and islands with the lack of effective policies to reduce the anthropogenic footprint in the megacities creates ever-increasing local resentment with the «colonial state» of Athens.
3. The institutional and regulatory framework for offshore wind and photovoltaics. It is necessary to encourage the exploitation of the geothermal and of energy storage through hybrid systems as well as the biomass(for example in Kythera by burning olive branches after pruning as many olive trees are cultivated on the island) As the cost of photovoltaic panels has been significantly reduced it would be appropriate to abolish the tenders by the P.A.E. only for wind turbines but only to make them joint tenders for wind power - photovoltaics  and for the market to choose the preferred and cheaper technology.
4. As Greece is by far the country with the highest biodiversity in Europe and given the fact that that the greatest threat to biodiversity is land use change, the Environment Ministry should not permit new wind farms in Natura sites and bird migration corridors in order to adequately protect natural ecosystems and endangered species. According to the results of a recent study by the University of Ioannina, the wind turbines already in various stages of licensing for non-Natura areas are sufficient to exceed the national target for 2030 by two to three times. Despite this, there are currently pending permits for an additional 5,514 wind turbines within protected areas. According to a recent study by the European Environment Agency, the impact of the rate of biodiversity loss in Europe is as devastating as climate change. In Kythera, 35 of the 45 birds of prey found in Greece have been recorded in the 2 migration periods (21 years of monitoring of the migration of birds of prey from the Kythera area. Kominos I, Galanaki A.)
5. The amount of energy that an island can offer should be calculated taking into account various parameters (population, consumption, maximum altitude, wind data, sunshine, crops, microclimate, etc.) and legally allow a a mix of production forms based on local characteristics in order to achieve the optimal result. For example, on an island like Kythera with a power demand on a summer day (peak power) of 8MW, the legislation cannot allow for 300MW to be contributed, at the moment 150MW have been licensed and a further 100MW are pending with wind industrial installations ONLY. without taking into account for example very high sunshine on the island during the year.
6. The Greek islands are one of the main tourist attractions of Greece and their very economic survival is based on respect for the scale of the landscape. The islands can and should contribute to the national energy ‘piggy bank’ provided that the sensitive landscape, cultural heritage, traditional settlements, ecosystems and the unparalleled natural beauty that the existing land-use planning does NOT guarantee are protected. In a country whose Gross National Product is 30% based on Tourism to do zoning in such a way is like ‘starving and satisfying your hunger by cutting and eating your hand’. Moreover, the Council of Ministers had prohibited the installation of steel electricity transmission pylons on the islands by Council Decision 2805/1997 because they constitute a brutal violation of the island landscape.
7. Any comparison on the issue of RES with other countries needs special attention before drawing conclusions. Often the Denmark as an example to follow. However, compared to Greece, Denmark has a higher altitude of 171 meters, coverage of natural or semi-natural areas 29% (Greece 72%), coverage of NATURA 2000 network 8.4% (Greece 27.3%), percentage of GDP from tourism 8.3% (Greece 30.9%). Also both Denmark and Germany border with countries with high energy needs so whenever they have a surplus of wind power (as it is not stored) they can export it (In Greece the interconnections with foreign countries are about 1800MW)

8. The areas for the siting of RES-E in the islands and in general should not only be decided on the basis of wind data and investment interest and interest but also in relation to the individual values and specificities of each area. . The local spatial plans must be created for each municipality in accordance with the principles of a general spatial plan for the country.
9. The quid pro quo benefits both in relation to the purchase - lease of land for the implementation of the investments and the quid pro quo benefits (3%) to the Citizens are literally “mirrors” to the indigenous people in a modern form. They should be increased to a very significant degree.
10. The issues noise - health, the impact in local climatology and underground aquifer need special attention. In many cases, Environmental Impact Assessments are characterised by a high degree of sloppiness (The epitome of copy-paste in several cases). The scientific community is also divided on the acoustic disturbance from wind turbines. How noticeable a noise is has to do with the sound level of the environment, which in many villages near where wind turbines are sited is very low. Most studies take as noise thresholds levels that refer to urban environments that are already acoustically polluted. They also do not take into account the morphology of the terrain in terms of how sound is transmitted through gullies, valleys, etc. and the resonances that may occur.
11. In Greek legislation there is no no assurance about the removal of the wind turbines after the end of their lifetime (20 years) and if they are not repowered. There is no guarantee in the form of a letter of guarantee to secure the citizen in the event of bankruptcy, for example of the investor concerned. The AEPs (Environmental Permit Decision) must provide for complete deforestation and recycling based on the principle of sustainability, para. 1 of Article 24 of the Constitution and ensure it with a letter of guarantee of an adequate amount.
12. In order to achieve energy self-sufficiency, local authorities and residents can create energy communities with the participation of the local utility so that they bear the actual cost of their electricity supply and part or all of the surplus electricity after the sale of the surplus electricity is used for local public utility activities. The institutional framework for energy communities is provided by Law 4513/2018. This would be an essential policy for the participation of the islands in electricity generation and their energy self-sufficiency. As energy is a social good in this way the choice of technology can be made by exploiting local advantages.
13. If the policy on renewable energy and wind farms in particular is based on the principle of of statistical balancing then we should know. In this case, by increasing the grid size and installing multiple wind turbines to meet the needs of each country, statistical balancing of the grids is achieved. As more countries are interconnected, the more generation stability increases. After all, this is why interconnection projects are at the forefront.

14.A serious problem is that the local authorities are not involved in shaping sectoral plans which are prepared on a national scale. This creates the risk of suddenly being faced with investment decisions without consultation. Both the central administration and the local community must have a say in weighing up the benefits and costs of investments, which can lead to their better acceptance.

15.Before any authorisation of an activity in NATOURA areas there must be appropriate impact assessment activity in the area. If the competent authorities have any doubts, they must, in accordance with EU directives, cancel the project, a condition which is systematically infringed by the administration's decisions.

16. Η propaganda on ‘green’ energy targets large urban centres where people are alienated from nature. To this propaganda that proposes for example a few wind turbines on mountains around the Athens basin to familiarize public opinion with wind turbines and with a very powerful lobby that advertises everywhere the brochure THE WIND ENERGY ALREADY - the truth behind the myths by distributing it even to ministers, a serious counter-argument and representation by voices with logic and willingness to search for meaningful and commonly accepted solutions is needed.

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS - A.S.P.E. IN ISLANDS

It took another crisis and a pandemic for us to realise that tourism, however important it is today, when it is a «monoculture», is a completely meaningless profession that can in no way ensure the permanent and stable survival of island societies. But as if all the above were not enough, now our politicians have started to implement another brilliant idea, which may well be the coup de grace for the islands. After all the devaluation and destruction of the islands on land and sea, having de-industrialized most of Greece, they have thought of setting up a new industrial production zone (see, energy) on the islands and islets. The inhabitants of the islands had formed an aesthetic landscape that is an important example of their culture, which all of us, Greeks and foreigners alike, like to admire on our holidays. So the last brilliant idea our politicians had was to install a new form of «development» in these unique landscapes and ecosystems, which they promote under the ironic title of «green(!) islands».

Taking into account the basic requirements of protecting the sensitive landscape based on the limited scale of the islands, enhancing the quality of tourism, the acceptance of the projects by the local communities and the proportion of facilities in relation to local needs, we propose:

1. On the one hand, the completion of the required studies for the areas of the NATURA 2000 Network (Special Environmental Studies and Management Plans) and on the other hand, the avoidance, until their completion, of any placement of heavy uses in these areas.
2. Reduction of the height and power of the installations, which will also depend on the maximum altitude of the islands.
3. ASPHE installations to be out of sight of traditional settlements and important monuments - historical sites
4. Exclusion of bird migration corridors, NATOURA sites and SPAs (Important Bird Areas) from SPAs
5. Calculation of the carrying capacity of the islands in terms of energy quantities in relation to local needs, in order to respect the ‘polluter pays’ principle’
6. Concentration of wind turbines in specific areas so that the environmental and aesthetic burden is less
7. Ensure the clearing of the facilities and restoration of the landscape through a letter of guarantee of sufficient amount.
8. Function of siting in relation to height difference between residential areas and wind turbine base.
9. Increase the distance of 500 meters from a residential area especially in cases where the wind turbine base is located at the living level of the nearest residential areas.

*The presentation was made by the DYNAMO KYTHIRA group at the Panhellenic Meeting of Collectivities for Energy, via teleconference on 17 and 18 October 2020