Enel wants to invest in energy storage if framework is right

Italy’s Enel Green Power is interested in proceeding with further investments in Greece, more specifically, in the energy storage sector, if the government shapes a suitable institutional framework, company CEO Antonio Cammisecra has noted.

“We regard Greece as an investment destination,” Cammisecra told journalists yesterday during the opening ceremony of Enel’s wind energy complex, Greece’s largest such project, on the island Evia, slightly northeast of Athens, and one of Europe’s biggest.

Legal framework concerning energy storage has remained pending since the tenure of the previous energy minister Giorgos Stathakis.

The new energy ministry and RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, are both currently working on shaping framework for energy storage, expected to be delivered in 2020.

Greece needs to work on simplifying current RES licensing procedures if renewable energy is to gain further ground in the country’s energy mix, Cammisecra, the Enel chief, pointed out during yesterday’s opening ceremony.

“The cost of a specific technology increases over the years for two reasons, firstly because this technology is overtaken by new developments, and secondly because the older it is the less amount of energy it produces,” the Italian official remarked.

Cammisecra described Enel’s wind energy complex on Evia, in the Kafireas region, as a “symbol of persistence”.

Combining seven wind energy parks, the Evia complex is a 300 million-euro investment with a 154-MW capacity covering electricity needs for 130,000 households. CO2 emissions will be reduced by 500,000 tons. This project’s capacity represents 4.5 percent of Greece’s wind park capacity total.