Let’s not forget RES

Undoubtedly, the energy crisis we are experiencing is unprecedented.

Issues such as energy sufficiency and security of supply but also the importance of natural gas as a fuel are now emerging. The same goes for costs and prices.

And most of the world is now coming to grips with these facts, as well as for example that most of the electricity it consumes is produced by natural gas.

Another lesson learned by even the most skeptical and ignorant is that this particular fossil fuel is linked to geopolitical games: He who has the gas deposits is dominant over one who has none. Dependence can reach suffocating levels, as confirmed by Putin’s opening-closing pipeline tricks. It’s easy to bring people and economies to their knees… when there is no energy independence and self-sufficiency.

We also find that the debate on RES and climate change, both in Greek and European forums, has regressed. And to a certain extent there is an explanation as the priority is to secure quantities of natural gas so that citizens going without heating in the middle of winter.

Energy independence

Before the outbreak of war, the issues of “green” energy and climate change had risen to the top of the EU’s and Greece’s strategic choices. Renewable Energy Sources and storage as well as other alternative forms of clean energy, biomethane and “green” hydrogen emerged as the only “weapons” to limit climate change and environmental destruction.

But even in the midst of an energy crisis, it has been proven that renewable energy sources, wind and photovoltaic, are able to offset the increases in energy prices and of course limit the emissions of gaseous pollutants responsible for the greenhouse effect.

On October 7th, according to the official data published by the Greek Independent Power Transmission Operator-IPTO, for five hours Greece covered the electricity demand of households and businesses through wind and solar power. The stock exchange price in Greece had dropped that day at 230 from 300 euros per Megawatt hour in the previous days.

Only in the first half of the year, according to official studies presented by the Hellenic Wind Energy Association HWEA/ELETAEN and the Hellenic Association of Electricity Producers from Renewable Energy Sources, RES did not allow a cap of 40 euros per Megawatt hour on the price of electricity.

For the same period, wind power alone contributed 760 million euros in subsidies to electricity bills.

Conflicting settings

The RES and energy storage solution is a one-way solution as it ensures the countries’ energy independence.

The E.U. maintains the high goals it has set for the penetration of RES.

The Greek government has accordingly set the bar high for increasing RES participation in the energy mix. As he also promoted the necessary institutional framework for licensing.

However, the biggest problem is whether the laws and decisions can be implemented in practice, since at the same time it is well known that regulations conflict with the fast track licensing of projects.

That is, at the same time that one law shortens the licensing procedures for RES projects, another law comes to set excessive limits on wind and photovoltaic sites.

Meanwhile, the government and the E.U. should neither forget the importance of RES nor put unjustified obstacles in their development…

And of course, the debate on “green” energy must be reopened.