IENE participated in European Commission’s inaugural forum on "Clean Energy for EU Islands”, which was held on Friday, September 22, 2017, in Chania, on Crete. More specifically, Mr. Dimitris Mezartasoglou, IENE’s Resident Research Associate, attended this one-day high-level meeting and actively participated in its proceedings.
The presence of IENE in this forum was considered of vital importance, as the Institute, due to the imminent interconnection of the Aegean and Crete islands with the country’s interconnected system and the further penetration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in the country's energy mix, is currently developing a comprehensive study and related actions for the integration of RES units (e.g. wind, photovoltaic, solar, geothermal) in the energy infrastructure of the Greek islands. It is worth noting that IENE, following strong interest by PPC and the local authority, has initially focused its interest on Kastelorizo (i.e. a remote Greek island located in southeastern Mediterranean close to Rhodes) for the implementation of the above study.
The forum was attended by local government officials, senior representatives of research centers and other speakers from all over Europe, in the presence of Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete and Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy, Dominique Ristori, who contributed introductory speeches.