ATHENS – Moving to further wean off reliance on Russian energy supplies, Greece has further turned toward sustainable and green sources, particularly wind, with onshore use generating half of the electricity on Jan. 18.

It was the biggest share of onshore wind farms in daily power output in Europe, according to the Hellenic Wind Energy Association (HWEA) which tweeted that Greece that day was the first in Europe by the share of electricity production from onshore wind energy, and that 55  percent of electricity in the country’s system that day came from onshore wind farms activity.

The trend of high amounts of energy generated by wind farms in Greece has continued, the association noted, lowering the the average wholesale price of electricity that day to 58.44 euros ($63.30) per megawatt hour (Mwh.)

During the 24-hour period, the wholesale price of electricity was below 10 euros ($10.84) per MWh half of the time and for three hours the wholesale electricity price was zero or almost zero, according to HWEA,  said Balkan Green Energy.

The New Democracy government had pumped nearly 10 billion euros ($10.84 billion) into subsidizing the cost of electricity for households that nearly doubled in the aftermath of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Still, Greece had to turn back to using coal-fired plants to produce electricity and push back plans to shut them down even though Russian supplies were exempted from European Union sanctions.