Barriers on the propagation of renewable energy sources and sustainable solid waste management practices in Greece.
Renewable energy sources (RES), excluding large hydroelectric plants, currently produce 4.21% of total electricity production in Greece. Even when considering the additional production from large hydroelectric plants, which accounts for some 7.8%, the distance to be covered towards the objective of 20% electricity produced from RES by 2010 and respectively towards 20% of total energy production by 2020 is discouraging. The potential, however, does exist; unfortunately so do serious barriers. On the other hand, solid waste management (SWM) is an issue that generates continuously increasing interest due to the extra amounts of solid waste generated; the lack of existing disposal facilities with adequate infrastructure and integrated management plans, also often accompanied by legislative and institutional gaps. However, socio-economic and public awareness problems are still met in the planning and implementation of RES and SWM projects, together with the lack of a complete national cadastre and a spatial development master plan, specifying areas eligible for RES and SWM development. Specific barriers occur for individual RES and the on-going inclusion of waste-derived renewable energy in the examined palette further increases the complexity of the entire issue. The consolidated study of this broad set of barriers was a main task of the present study which was carried out within the frame of a Hellenic-Canadian research project; the main results will be discussed herein.
Boemi
Sn
S
Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece. boemi@aix.meng.auth.gr
Papadopoulos
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A
Karagiannidis
A
A
Kontogianni
S
S
D003246:Conservation of Energy Resources; D006115:Greece; D011639:Public Opinion; D012037:Refuse Disposal; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors