Earth Equity News

Greece Seeks to Boost Economy With Renewable Energy. By Angeliki Koutantou, Reuters, September 13, 2010. "Greece unblocked renewable energy projects worth 2.1 billion euros ($2.7 billion) as the cash-strapped country struggles to attract new investments to boost its ailing economy, the energy regulator said on Monday. The Mediterranean country has offered subsidies to renewable energy firms, but red tape and skewed incentives have led to a huge applications backlog of 40,000 megawatts, rather than to the construction of new units. Greece's Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) said it approved last week several green energy schemes across the country, with a total capacity of 840 megawatts, and pledged to speed up procedures for the licensing of other projects… Although Greece is one of the sunniest and windiest countries in Europe, wind and solar power accounted for just 4% of electricity output in 2009, compared with more than 60% generated from burning lignite, a polluting form of brown coal. Greece has pledged to raise the renewables share to 40% by 2020."