RESEARCH / ARAŞTIRMA RESCRUCTING ın • ENERGY GENERATIDN• DEVELDPLMENTS D� CDGENERATIDN ANALVSIS af CDUNTRIES1 REPDRT PART 3 • GREECE Sevilay TOPÇU Elektrik Yüksek Mühendisi 1. INTRODUCTION rıı Greece has a small but fast developing economy, in comparison with other Member States of the European Union. in the period 1996-2001, the average GDP growth in Greece was 3.5%. The EIA Country analysis has estimated a GDP growth of 5.0% to 5.5% for over the next 15 years. There are several reasons for this increase in the Greek growth rate: the participation in the Eurozone in January 2001; the 3rd community supporting framework and the infrastructure developments regarding the 2004 Olympic Games to be held in Athens in 2004. Greece has oil reserves of nine million barrels and natural gas reserves of 500 million cubic metres, but these small amounts are not enough to satisfy the demand of primary fuels. Lignite is the major domestic fuel source accounting for 82% of the indigenous energy sources and it has been a key policy tool for fuel diversification in the past, however the environmental consequences were not fully considered. Electricity generation is 90% thermal. Lignite is the main fuel used for power generation in the mainland accounting for 64% of the total electricity generated, whilst in the Greek islands oil is the main fuel. Natura! gas has gained importance over the past few years and it has the potential to become one of the primary energy fuels after the expected market liberalisation and the operation of the pipelines connecting Greece with ltaly and ıran. Yet according to the EIA estimations, natura! gas consumption for power generation is expected to triple over the next 1 O years. There is a small proportion of renewable energy representing 8.1 % of total electricity production, most of it is hydroelectric power although solar and biomass have interesting future prospects. CRES expects this percentage to be double by 201 O following the European directive on the promotion of renewables. 2. STATISTICS 2.1 . Past development of CHP The share of CHP electricity production in Greece is around 3.4% oftotal electricity generated, one of the lowest in the European Union. The total installed CHP capacity in 2000 was 708 MWe, with an electricity production • T
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