Tesla and Greece want to provide islands with microgrids for green energy
Tesla and the Greek government are in talks to see the extent to which certain Greek islands can be supplied with autonomous, local electricity networks, suitable for renewable power from wind turbines, solar panels and batteries.
The Greek website Capital reports that the Greek minister for the environment and energy has met with Tesla employees. The aim of those talks is to reduce the islands’ dependence on fossil fuels. This mainly concerns those islands that are not connected to the national electricity network.
For example, these islands still use diesel in their power stations to generate electricity. The island of Limnos is one such island that is not connected to the national network. It is reported that the Greek government wants Tesla to start a pilot here, building a relatively small, local electricity network suitable for renewable energy sources.
According to the Greek government, talks with Tesla show that “technological progress” has ensured that the costs of storing energy have fallen sharply. In addition, the country states that several successful renewable energy projects have been completed in which the costs for energy production have decreased significantly. As a result, the government now considers it economically viable, irrespective of the environmental benefits, to completely convert the energy supply on the islands to, for example, solar and wind energy. To do this, the islands need a modern management system that can handle the considerable amounts of energy that have to be stored. That’s probably what Tesla is needed for.
The American company already has experience building microgrids on islands, such as Samao, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. In Greece, this probably also concerns the Tesla Powerpacks. These are battery parks that are used, for example, to store energy from wind turbines and solar panels. Such a system has been in place in Australia for more than a year with a lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 100MW, which is linked to a wind farm. According to Tesla, this will provide 30,000 households with energy at the same time.
Incidentally, the European Union is participating in a project to supply the Greek island of Tilos entirely with renewable energy sources. The EU is investing €11 million in a project that will make this island the first Mediterranean island to be completely self-sufficient in energy with completely green electricity. Tesla’s input would be particularly focused on developing and building autonomous energy systems for islands larger than tiny Tilos.
Solar panels on the island of Tilos