ATHENS – Greece’s push to get away from reliance on Russian energy supplies and find alternatives to fossil fuels has led to approval for reusing wind turbines, moving them from wind farms on the mainland to remote islands.

That was seen in a measure sent to Parliament by Ministry of Environment and Energy to keep the old windmills going to generate electricity as an alternative source, said Balkan Green Energy News.

https://balkangreenenergynews.com/new-law-in-greece-to-allow-installing-used-wind-turbines-in-isolated-islands/

The bill is aimed at keeping viable functioning wind turbines if the models are no longer manufactured, the proposal giving a chance to move smaller turbines to non-interconnected islands to boost renewable energy production.

Investors in wind farms in islands isolated from the mainland electricity grid will have to get technical approval that the machines are in proper operating condition as well as for their remaining life expectancy. An additional requirement is that they can’t be more than 20 years in operation, the report said.

The idea is to facilitate installation of newer, larger and more advanced wind turbines in existing farms on the mainland and give a second life to older windmills suitable for use on islands because of their small size and limited natural impact.

The Hellenic Wind Energy Association (HWEA) said Greece installed just 230 megawatts (MW) of wind farms in 2022, increasing the capacity in the country by 5.2 percent to 4.68 GW.

The average size of wind turbines has been steadily increasing though. The measure grew from 1.9 MW in 2018 to 3.4 MW in 2022 with progress in the technology, the energy news site said.

Another trend in the Greek market is that companies that operate wind farms are applying to re-power them so that they consist of a smaller number of larger turbines, the report also added.