The Hellenic National Defense General Staff has approved a national strategy for the establishment of sea plot areas to host offshore wind farms, subsequently clearing away a last set of obstacles so as to assure investors absolute clarity on regional licensing matters.

EDEYEP, the Hellenic Hydrocarbons and Energy Resources Management Company, is now excepted to deliver its national strategy for offshore wind farm development to the new energy minister Theodoros Skylakakis within the next few days.

Local authorities are aiming for investments worth 6 billion euros in Greece’s emerging offshore wind farm sector.

The plan will be fine-tuned at the energy ministry before being forwarded for consultation and finalized through a ministerial decision.

According to sources, the strategy’s first phase will include six offshore areas instead of five, as had been originally intended.

Even so, the plan’s nucleus is expected to remain unchanged. It consists of Alexandroupoli, in the northeast, planned to host two pilot projects offering a total capacity of 600 MW; Crete, where a further 600-MW capacity is expected to be offered with offshore wind farms at sea plots around the island’s northeastern edge, between Sitia and Xerokampos; as well the central Aegean, with sea plots to be marked out either close to the mainland or in the Dodecanese area for a further 900 MW.

Overall, the plan is expected to feature between 12 and 15 sea plots, including three or four east of Crete, two or three in the Aegean Sea’s east, two or three in the Dodecanese area, three spots east of Evia, close to the mainland, as well as two more off Alexandroupoli in the northeast.

Greek officials have, for quite some time now, been engaged in talks with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition to establish a remuneration mechanism for offshore wind farms and related auctions.

Sector experts estimate that a first auction may, in a best-case scenario, be staged by 2028, ahead of the launch of a first group of offshore wind farms at the end of the decade.

GEK-Terna and the Copelouzos group recently joined forces for common survey work concerning two respective pilot-project offshore wind farms close to Alexandroupoli.