A negative assessment by the Directorate of Natural Environment and Biodiversity of the Ministry of Environment essentially put an end to plans to build six wind farms in the virgin part of the central Aegean island of Skyros.
According to the authority, the construction of the project will cause irreparable damage to protected bird species such as Eleonora’s falcon and Bonelli’s eagle, which could be killed by wind turbines, the kathimerini newspaper reported on Wednesday. She also noted that Skyros is an important place for passage and stopping of migratory birds, as 102 of the 173 species recorded on the island are present in its skies during the migration period.
The Directorate also rejected a proposal to install mitigation systems, stressing that the noise generated by the turbines would further displace the species from their main habitats.
Locals on Skyros and the neighboring island of Evia were surprised earlier this month to learn that a proposal to create a Natura protected area was back after proposals were rejected in 2006, 2020 and 2022.
According to the newspaper avgi, the wind farm will consist of 58 wind turbines. “The first proposal was in 2006 for the installation of 10 wind farms with 111 wind turbines. The opposition to this proposal by the local community was universal and expressed in numerous unanimous decisions of the municipal council, successive resolutions of the people’s assemblies, the reaction of all departments, even the region of Central Greece, which rejected the corresponding study impact on the environment,” said Vangelis Apostolou, an MP from SYRIZA.
The second case occurred in 2020, when the Energy Regulatory Authority accepted a proposal to upgrade the investment in terms of the number and size of wind turbines, but maintaining a total capacity of 333 MW, which was rejected by the CE.
The request from “Aeolitic Notiou Skyrou SA” returned for the third time in March 2022, with the aim of including a new proposal in a strategic investment, while reducing the number of wind farms and wind turbines, but increasing their size, since in fact their capacity is reduced by only 10%, that is, from 333 to 300 MW.
They withdrew the request in order to overcome some problems and, in fact, repeated it for the fourth time, even after the negative opinions of the responsible authorities, such as the Ministry of the Environment, which they asked to propose compensatory measures.
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