In Greece, the anti-wind movement is on the rise

"+ Why did you allow this crime to be committed + tourists who have been coming here for years are asking us," Stamatoula Karava, head of a local cultural association, told AFP.

From her house, where she likes to contemplate the mountains on the horizon, this resident of Agii Apostoli is indignant that the view is "completely ruined" by the "giant" wind turbines, whose little red lights flash all night long.

Some 80 km northeast of Athens, the island of Evia was among the very first regions of Greece to host a wind farm twenty years ago, but the proliferation of huge structures in recent years has saturated the sparsely inhabited south of the island.

The municipality of Karystos, with an area of ​​672 km2, has more than 400 wind turbines, some of them along the main road.

The oldest are abandoned, propellers broken, on a hill, "without any recycling program, a scandal", denounces Chryssoula Bereti, president of the Anti-wind front of Karystos.

Battered by the strong winds of the Aegean Sea, "Evia is an island of high wind capacity, many licenses have been issued, almost reaching a maximum level", explains to AFP Athanasios Dagoumas, president of the Greek Authority of the. regulation of energy (RAE).

Decline in lignite in Greece

Currently at 8.205 MW across the country, the maximum wind capacity has increased more than six times in two years, according to the RAE.

To meet its European commitments on climate change, Greece has had to work hard to green its energy.

The main resource of the country, lignite, is in decline, with the closure of certain factories or their transformation into natural gas production units.

Greece is now only 10% dependent on lignite and is turning more to natural gas (40%) and renewable energies (30%), including 18% for wind power.

But with its mountainous terrain and rich biodiversity, "we cannot tolerate so many wind farms in Greece," said Dimitris Soufleris, head of the environmental protection company in Kymi, in central Evia.

In Kymi, "there was one every three days in the spring of 2020", he criticizes.

"The wind turbines have been installed on mountain tops, in forests, near archaeological sites, on islands, water regions, in protected Natura 2000 areas (...), it is as if the energy production n It was more than the only possible activity in this country", he denounces.

Under the leadership of the "Free mountains without wind turbines" movement, protests multiplied in 2021 in the mountainous regions, especially in the north of the country, in the Pindos massif, as well as on the Cycladic islands of Tinos, Andros and Skyros.

The Greek government has been forced to ban wind turbines in six mountainous areas where "licenses have been revoked", according to Mr Dagoumas.

And in northern Evia, whose thick forests were devastated in the summer of 2021 by major fires, the construction of planned wind turbines has been suspended "for now".

"It's a nightmare"

In the past two years, photovoltaic panels have overtaken wind turbines, which are "more demanding" and more expensive on average, underlines Athanasios Dagoumas.

According to M Soufleris, eighteen wind turbines are to be installed soon near Agii Apostoli.

Nikos Balaskas, whose house is located 340 meters from wind turbines, took legal action: "As an engineer, I am not against green energy but standards must be respected" because, at this level of nuisance , "it's torture, an ordeal, we can't sleep anymore because of the noise".

In Styra, a neighboring seaside resort, fourteen wind turbines are to be erected on the only hill that does not yet have one, according to the inhabitants.

"It will be a huge loss for our region, which attracts thousands of foreign hikers every year, that's enough!" Exclaims Afroditi Lekka, president of the local union of hoteliers.