Greek island of 250 people now gets over 90% of its power from sun and wind
Agios Efstratios, an Aegean island with no link to the mainland grid, now covers 91% of its electricity with a wind turbine, a solar farm and batteries, and stores surplus energy as hot water for heating. It is the first Greek island with such a system. The project cost €7.23 million, 85% of it EU money, and avoids about 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year, according to Euronews.
About 250 people live on Agios Efstratios, and no power cable reaches it from the mainland. Until recently, all its electricity came from burning fuel. Today 91% comes from the sun and the wind, according to Euronews.
It is the first Greek island with such a system, built under the Ai Stratis – Green Island project, with Greece’s Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES).
A turbine, panels and stored hot water
At the island’s highest point stands a 900-kilowatt wind turbine, 77 metres tall. Next to it are a 225-kilowatt solar farm and batteries that store surplus power. What the batteries cannot hold heats water in four tanks holding 500 cubic metres in total, which provide heating in winter.
“There is no need to operate a boiler inside the house,” local guesthouse manager Charalambos Makris told Euronews.
What it cost and what it saves
The project cost €7.23 million: 85% from EU cohesion funds and 15% from the Greek state. It avoids about 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year.
Its size makes it easy to copy on other small islands, but it is also its limit: a village of 250 is not a city. “Ai Stratis is an ideal community because of its small size,” says CRES chairman Dimitrios Kardomateas. Greece has dozens of islands still not connected to the mainland grid.
