ElectraEnergy Cooperative of Greece is starting the permiting and license development for the first bioenergy community project in the Greek islands. The project aims to be owned, constructed and operated in collaboration with the Municipality of Skyros Island, which shares with the local communities of the island the same ambition and value of creating a new local economy based on the independency of fossil fuels and the management and environmental improvement of the forest systems of the island. The project will be promoted nationally through several campaigns and dissemination activities to engage people from all Greece to take part on the project ownership, as well as promoting the technology and bioenergy approach to rural communities in other regions. Skyros Island is a non inter-connected island of the Aegean Sea with a stable population of 3,000 inhabitants, that triplicates in summer season. The island has an enormous energy cost and it is between the 12 Greek islands with higher cost for electricity due to the importations of fuels (Euro 354/MWh in 2012). The island has an average electricity consumption of 15,325 MWhs/year that remain in an annual cost of electricity of 5,36 millio euro (1,788 euro/year/inhabitant) On the other hand, Skyros islands has an enormous renewable energy potential by solar and wind energy, but also biomass since one third of the island is cover by Mediterranean pine tree forests with high density of trash and wastes (leaves, death woods, annual healthy treatments, etc). The forest is protected due to the high environmental values and richness of flora and fauna and it's the habitat of many autoctonous species of the Aegean Sea. However due to the lack of resources of the local public administration, forests are not receiving proper treatment what it generates high fires risks.The best solution would be an associated activity that could create local jobs, help to clean and provide environmental management of the area, but also to reduce highly the cost of electricity. The potential of using local biomass to generate electricity with our small plant would only cover 5,4% of the annual electricity consumption. Despite the small coverage, it would be showed to locals and to communities of other islands, that small scale and community renewable energy systems are a good way to avoid fossils, and also a feasible alternative against big investments from foreign companies stealing their energy resources, in the case of big RES projects. We as Electra Energy cooperative have proposed the development of a biomass license, in which the SPV company will be shared between the Municipality and our cooperative. By that way we would sell our shares to the local citizens in packages of 100-500 euro shares. The Municipality has received the approval for the management of 60,000 hectares of the forest, which would allow us to access a biomass feed-stock of up to 2,400 tons of trash, leaves and death wood, not counting necessary cuttings and annual pruning. The power plant would need an average of 1,500 tons of biomass annually, which is estimated to be deliver at the plant by a local cooperative at the price of euro 20/ton. That would remain on an annual cost of fuel of approximately 30,000 euro. We as the cooperative are looking for European partners that may have interest in this type of projects and that would be interested to support partially the prefinancial costs of development and construction. Greek RES market is under transition and momentum for creation of new energy suppliers is getting closer. Our cooperative has been selected by the Ministry of Energy to advise on the new policy framework regarding citizens participation in the electricity market through cooperatives, so our main goal with this project, it's also to propose a pilot system to open the debate of a flexible electricity market for everybody. We as Electa believe on the potential of this model and investment, not only for Greece but for many other countries and specially Mediterranean or Southern European areas where fires are a risks for all the local communities, and we are willing if we get this project ongoing, to support new communities and people to achieve the same success and replicate these type of actions in the near future

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Electra Energy Cooperative

Electra is a Greek engineering cooperative that offers green solutions and engage citizens and communities to participate in the transition towards a sustainable, co-owned and efficient energy supply system in Greece. Electra is founded by a team of multi-disciplinary engineers and consultants with different professional backgrounds but that share a main vision: sustainable development and the creation of a shared economy for renewable energy sources

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