On Wednesday, Greek Energy Minister Kostis Hatzidakis announced the country’s plan to invest EUR5 billion (USD5.9 billion) to offset the impact of ditching coal in power generation by 2028.
The investment would include state money, funds from the EU, and loans from the European Investment Bank. It is now to be placed under public consultation until October 31 and will be submitted for approval to the Greek parliament and the EU by the end of the year.
The funds will be allocated to spur infrastructure projects, subsidies to new businesses, and training, to help western Macedonia and Megalopoli in Southern Peloponnese switch to green energy, agriculture, and tourism.
The two regions are the country’s main suppliers of coal. State-owned Public Power Corp. (PPC) has already shut two coal units with a total capacity of 550 megawatts in Macedonia and will switch off the remaining 10 by 2023.
According to Hatzidakis, 16 private investments in renewables and other activities are in the pipeline and are expected to help create more than 8,000 jobs in western Macedonia and Megalopoli. The number of jobs to be created by the investments in the two regions would offset the amount of job loss due to the policy, he said.
Other than that, to support local communities in the most affected areas, the country will consider tax incentives to new businesses.
The investments include ’s plan to construct solarPPC parks in Western Macedonia with a generating capacity of 2.3 GW, along with Hellenic Petroleum’s EUR130 million (USD153 million) solar power project.
The government has pledged to switch off 80% of state utility PPC’s coal capacity by 2023.
