The “Winds of Change” project aims to produce thorough analysis, initiate discussions and a constructive dialogue between key stakeholders. It also aims to build bridges of mutual trust and collaboration on green transition with the deployment of renewable energy (RE) sources, notably offshore wind energy, for a new energy model for Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean.
It employs a two-pronged approach: a regional dimension of a connected RE production and distribution in Greece’s neighbourhood; and a domestic dimension with a focused socio-economic impact study on offshore wind energy power. Both strands of work will provide evidence and substantiated analysis to foster new and strengthen existing dialogues among key stakeholders looking to advance policy making and investments in RE technology for Greece, the Eastern Mediterranean region, the EEA Donor States and the EU.
Focusing on alleviating national and local concerns about onshore wind farms in environmentally sensitive regions in Greece, and in view of the anticipated incoming regulatory framework for transition of the energy model, the socio-economic impact study will identify evidence and analysis on the introduction of offshore wind power in Greece’s energy mix. Specifically, this study will dovetail and support the regulatory analysis conducted by ELETAEN and the stakeholder dialogues in Greece to date. At the same time, it enables Greece to lead an informed discussion with its neighbours on offshore wind power production for a regional RE model.
By exploring the geopolitical state of play in the Eastern Mediterranean, this study aims to analyse the configuration of energy geopolitics in the Eastern Mediterranean, which have been shaped by the discovery of sizeable natural gas resources in the region about a decade ago and by various energy monetisation projects, which included the connection of the Eastern Mediterranean with the energy grid of the European energy market. As the pandemic and the European Green Deal have shifted the focus from hydrocarbon to RE in the Eastern Mediterranean, this study aims to contribute to the identification of opportunities and risks for the successful development of a RE grid and offshore wind power farms in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Project Partners:
Alma Economics
Norwegian Wind Energy Association (NORWEA)
Funded by:
Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants (www.eeagrants.org) (Bilateral Fund)
News & Media
The Mediterranean after the Conference on Climate Change – Cleopatra Kitti, Ioannis N. Grigoriadis (Ta Nea, 8 December 2021)
The Eastern Mediterranean between hydrocarbons and RES – Ioannis N. Grigoriadis & Constantine Levoyannis (Ta Nea, 22 September 2021)
Off-shore wind energy in Greece – Alma Economics (Capital.gr, 16 September 2021)
Podcast: Renewable energy, the European Green Deal, and the Eastern Mediterranean – Constantine Levoyannis (The Greek Current, 10 September 2021)
The Mediterranean as an unexplored field of cooperation – Cleopatra Kitti, Ioannis N. Grigoriadis (Ta Nea, 16 July 2021)
Podcast on ‘Rethinking energy cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean’ – Cleopatra Kitti and Ioannis N. Grigoriadis (16 June 2021)
