Posted on 08/27/2011 1:28:20 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Wracked by debt but blessed with abundant sunshine, Greece plans to develop some 20,000 hectares of solar power parks in a bid to export renewable energy to Germany, a report said on Saturday.
Top-selling Ta Nea daily said the project, which has a tentative budget of 20 billion euros ($29 billion), could create 60,000 jobs at a time when Greece is battling a deep recession and record unemployment figures.
Germany is looking for alternative energy sources after chancellor Angela Merkel's government decided to shut down all 17 of the country's nuclear reactors over 11 years, following the disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan in March.
Environment Minister George Papaconstantinou discussed the initiative, code named Project Helios, with Germany's deputy economy minister Stefan Kapferer, who was in Athens this week for investment talks, the daily said.
German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler is also scheduled to visit Greece in October, following an agreement between Athens and Berlin in March to cooperate on renewable energy development.
"There is significant German interest in investments of this sort," Papaconstantinou said this week, adding that the Greek government has already initiated funding talks on Project Helios with foreign banks.
"These are plans with a 20 and 25-year perspective, hence investors are guaranteed a satisfactory return," said Papaconstantinou, who headed the finance ministry until June.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, a strong proponent of green energy, announced plans in January to build "the world's largest solar park" over depleted lignite mines in the northern city of Kozani.
Estimated to cost 600 million euros and with a capacity of 200 megawatts, the project's electricity output will be "greater than any other photovoltaic park operational in the world until now," Papandreou said at the time.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
And we export ethanol...and “loaned” the Brazillians millions for drilling research....(We’ve forgiven billions for these 3rd world countries)
The Germans are going to buy power at 3x to 4x the price of what they can generate it themselves for. That’ll really help their economy. But maybe they can at least get Greece to pay their debts to Germany this way.
If it gets a few rioters and protesters off the streets when we visit next month.. I’m all for it. :-]
Agree. In order to do this, by my count and depending where in Greece these solar farms are located, Greece would have to obtain permission from six different countries to run a “power Corridor” through them. How likely should we score this happening, lol? Additionally, although alternating current doesn't drop as rapidly as direct current (research the Edison vs Watt fight over this) it does drop. I'm not an electrical engineer but I think that due to the distance this is impractical an just more Greek over Ouzo idle chatter :)
I read the headline, and wondered if this was written by John Semmens. NOPE.
The sunlight will be injected into cucumbers which will then be shipped to Germany in trucks, and German technicians will extract the sunshine from the cucumbers and generate electricity from it.
Now what will Germany do with a whole 2 watts. The
scam continues
Here we have a project that reportedly will cost $29 billion and create 60,000 jobs. How much work is it, really, to divide 29 billion by 60 thousand? Not much. So I did it. And I can now reveal that this project will cost $483,333 per job. In Greece, no less, where 483 grand is serious money. This is a bigger boondoggle than one of the First Wookie's trips abroad. |
George Papaconstantinou was head of the ministry of finance, of Greece, which went broke. Now he heads up the Energy Ministry and is arranging to borrow money to build a solar energy project to export electricity to Germany. Wow, what could go wrong with that.
They are in debt up to their eyeballs, but they want to borrow more money to build a solar energy "farm" located on some land that used to be mines (lignite mines?). And they think they will make a profit and repay the loan exporting this power to Germany.
What I fear most is that, if our leaders in this country continue, this will seem normal for our country, too, in a few years.
Well, that kind of project could be done with mirrors and steam generators, but the power lines from Greece to Germany would be gargantuan...enormous. That would be about a 1,000 miles. ...and fragile, and with much voltage drop, unless some of those nice little countries along the way (irony) would want to donate some power to the line.
LOL :) too funny! Actually, makes as much sense as some of the ridiculous notions the Enviro-Nazis come up with.
Any country or part of a country that tries to save its economy by building a big, expensive, “new technology” project with borrowed money will be bankrupted and disappointed when it is done. Just stand aside, keep regulations and taxes low and capitalism will work its wonder to create prosperity.
With the snadmaggot problem, both Greece and Germany would be at the mercy of the culture entitled to a free pass for sabotage and terrorism.
Good luck with that, too.
A historically fatal error. Energy is one of the pillars of a dynamic economy that actually produces useful things. There is no cheaper or more reliable energy than nuclear.
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These guys can never do any math. They just sling numbers around, knowing that most of their constituents are too lazy to check up on them, and most journalists are too far in the tank for 'green' stuff to care.