While the countdown continues for Greece to meets its Kyoto Protocol and EU targets on greenhouse gas emissions, a vast supply of clean and continuous energy is, literally, sloshing around underfoot.
Geothermal power - the energy derived from stores of superheated water and steam in seismically-active areas - could, according to geologists, offer a realistic alternative to fossil fuels in the production of electricity and position the country as a regional leader in what is a growing global market.
Despite the Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (IGME) establishing the existence of 30 geothermal fields in Greece - two of them sizeable enough to produce at least 250MW of uninterrupted electrical power - geothermal energy remains non-existent among the country's 900-plus megawatts of electricity produced from renewable sources.
Indeed, according to an energy profile of Greece in a US Commercial Service report last year, there are up to 2,000MW of electrical output available from 'high temperature fields' across the country. The IGME puts the figure at a more conservative 500MW.
Either way, with the country committed to the EU's so-called 20:20: 20 legislation (20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, 20 percent energy production from renewables and 20 percent energy saving relative to 1990 levels by 2020) and the Kyoto Protocol requirement to limit to 8 percent the rise in the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 2012, energy providers have been keen to size up the full potential of Greece's geothermal fields.
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To this end, PPC Renewables, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Public Power Corporation, signed a memorandum of understanding with S&B Industrial Minerals SA last year to "jointly explore, operate and utilise the geothermal field of the Milos, Kimolos and Polaigos island complex".
Rich and untapped
"We have great geothermal potential in Greece," Andreas Georgakopoulos, director general of IGME, told the Athens News. "When the underground water and steam temperature is high - perhaps over 350°C - this can be used for electricity production. We have discovered these conditions on the islands of Milos and Nisyros and, we believe, on other islands - Kimolos, Hios, Samothraki and Lesvos - as well as the northwestern continental mainland, which have the same potential. For all that, the total installed capacity from geothermal sources is only 94MW, and within this there is no electricity production."
Such is the country's potential that the prime minister of Iceland, Geir Haarde, raised the possibility of cooperation in geothermal energy projects with Greece during discussions with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis last week.
More than a quarter of Iceland's total installed capacity is derived from geothermal power and virtually the remainder comes from hydroelectricity. A mere 0.1 percent of the island's energy is sourced from fossil fuels.
Definitely maybe
As proved by Iceland's famous Blue Lagoon, near Grindavik, geothermal energy can benefit other industries, such as tourism
To some in Greece, however, the words geothermal power are synonymous with the botched project on Milos in the early 1980s, when an attempt by PPC to develop a small plant there resulted in the release of large amounts of hydrogen sulphide, a toxic gas responsible for the odour of rotten eggs and flatulence.
Understandably, many locals on Milos - without whose consent any similar project there is likely to stall - are deeply opposed to even discussing the potential of geothermal energy.
The upshot is guarded optimism - at best - by those who have been responsible for pumping millions of euros into geothermal exploration projects. Consider the words of PPC Renewables' managing director, Anastasios Garis, at an IGME conference on geothermal power in northern Athens on September 1. After explaining that PPC Renewables has spent 16 million euros on exploring the potential of geothermal electricity production on Milos and elsewhere, he said:
"Milos is the richest geothermal field of energy in Greece. Potentially, the island will be connected [by underwater cabling] to the mainland grid and it is on the cards that it will be connected to Syros, after which we will leverage the full potential of what Milos can offer. When this happens - and it's going to happen - of course, after local community consent, which we rely on so much and respect, then there is the possibility of all the Cyclades islands being fed electricity from Milos".
There is, of course, another incentive for the largely lignite-dependent PPC. Under EU legislation, the company could soon be exposed to a 1bn-euro annual bill for carbon dioxide production licenses.
Unfortunate past
Efthymios Vidalis, the chief executive officer of S&B Industrial Minerals, was more candid when discussing the Milos legacy during his speech.
"It is no accident that the considerable geothermal potential of Greece has not been developed," he said. "On my first visit to Milos, I was warned to stay away from that field of geothermal energy because it was a burning topic and would probably be a very risky thing for our company."
This "unfortunate past", he said, has created a negative predisposition for the locals and a "not-in-my-back-yard mentality".
He spoke of the many bureaucratic obstacles to gaining production licenses in any form of energy production, of explorative drilling costing five million euros a shot, and of geothermal power being a "peanut" in world terms ("less than one percent of the global total installed capacity").
"However, the trends are powerful," he said. "We believe it has double-digit growth ahead of it, and it should provide a tremendous base load capacity."
He stressed also that geothermal exploration would proceed "only on the basis of local acceptance and not administrative and legal permits".
Most importantly, IGME's Georgakopoulos told this newspaper, technological know-how has improved since the Milos experiment.
"It just wouldn't happen now," he said. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't proceed with caution. A pilot station should first be constructed on Milos - around 5MW - for the geothermal field to be studied and to give people confidence that something bigger can be attempted."
Thrasy Petropoulos writes for Athens News and appears here with permission.
Harnessing the earth's power
GEOTEHRMAL reservoirs are formed when magma gets close to sealed underground water deposits near the earth's surface, thus raising the temperature of those deposits up to 400°C, depending on their proximity to the magma. These reservoirs are renewed by rain or seawater. In geological terms, Greece is a country of young to recent volcanism, with deep sedimentary basins bounded by deep faults and high geothermal tiers. Because the temperature rise approaching the surface is anomalous (in other words, the water's hotter than you expect it to be), there is a hydrothermal gradient making it favourable for the exploitation of geothermal energy.
The superheated water and steam can be used as an energy source to produce electricity, although at lesser temperatures (<90°C) the heat has practical uses in building, greenhouse and soil heating, in drying agricultural products and in bathing - most famously in Iceland's Blue Lagoon.
Unlike other renewable energy sources, it is available constantly.
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Milos - an unfortunate guinea pig
THE successful exploitation of the largest geothermal field in Greece will depend on the acceptance of locals, many of whom are deeply sceptical after a disastrous geothermal project there in the 1980s.
Among the sceptics is the mayor of Milos, Yiorgos Tsainis, who states categorically: "We have sent a letter stating that this is something that does not interest us."
Asked if that means the end to any geothermal project on the island, Tsainis sounds more flexible. "We are interested in exploiting low-temperature geothermal energy - up to 100 degrees C. For anything above that, we would only talk if the municipality is directly involved in the monitoring of the project," he says.
As for the PPC Renewables/S&B Industrial Minerals SA collaboration, Tsainis says: "We have not yet received a specific proposal. When we do, we will consider it. What we do know is that, according to the last efforts here, it is bad.
Hydrogen sulphide was spewing uncontrolled. It destroyed trees and spilt into the sea. Without knowing what they were doing, the PPC destroyed entire areas and then delayed in closing the plant. People know that it is a difficult and dangerous industry, so everything has to be considered in this light."
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Geothermal field of Milos
Area of the field: 50km2
Temperatures in the wells: 280°C
Depth of reservoirs 1,000-1,380m
Production: 339 tonnes/h of fluids
Pressure: 11-19 atmospheres
Potential: 200MW
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Geothermal field of Nisyros
Area of the field: 3.5km2
Temperatures in the wells: >350°C
Depth of reservoirs 1,400-1,900m
Production: 75 tonnes/h of fluids
Pressure: 12 atmospheres
Potential: 50MW
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