Nikos Mantzaris spoke on the programme “Asko ta dikaiomata mou, tiro tis yposcheseis mou stin Evropi tou avrio” on ERT’s First Programme and Pericles Vassilopoulos about the carbon footprint of electricity generation and the importance of renewables.
Drawing on The Green Tank’s new monthly analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, he commented that in 2022 lignite was responsible for 45% of emissions despite the fact that it met only 11% of electricity demand.
He also provided evidence of the significant progress of renewables in recent years and especially in 2022, which has contributed significantly to reducing the carbon footprint of the electricity sector. He stressed the need for this progress to continue in order for Greece to achieve its climate targets, but also to reduce the electricity bills of citizens, given that the cost of electricity generation from renewables is by far lower than technologies based on lignite and fossil gas. He stressed, however, that the development of renewables must be based on a modern spatial framework – which is still lacking – in order to protect the country’s biodiversity.
Responding to questions on the challenges for the power system arising from the increasing penetration of renewables, he described the potential of electricity storage technologies, such as pumped hydro energy storage and batteries, to balance the supply of electricity from renewables – which is high at certain times of the day and low at others – with electricity demand.
The interview was broadcasted live on Saturday April 8, 2023 and it is now available on our YouTube channel and ertecho.gr (in Greek).
