Possibilities of achieving zero CO2 emissions in
Crete in electricity generation using renewable
energy sources
John Vourdoubas (1), Antonios Pitaridakis
(1)
and Dr. Charalampos Litos
(2) (3)
ΤΕΙ of CRETE, Department of Natural resources and environment, gboyrd@tee.gr
(2)
(3)
(2)
Technical Chamber of CRETE, Branch of Western Crete, teetdk@tee.gr
Technical University of Crete, Department of Production Engineering and management, litos@tee.gr
ABSTRACT
Electricity demand in Crete is currently covered with
oil (86%) and wind energy (14%) and the island’s power grid is
not interconnected with the grid of Continental Greece. This
fact limits the development of many wind and solar power
stations, which could be installed in Crete using the abundant
solar and wind potential of the island. The abundant resources
existing wind parks. In the future the possibility of
interconnecting the power grid of Crete with the power
grid of Continental Greece will allow the development of
many new power stations using wind and solar energy to
generate electricity, through the island. Assuming that
the annually consumed electricity in Crete will be
of wind and solar energy of Crete will allow in the future the
produced through RES, mainly with wind and PV
installation of many wind and solar power stations if only the
systems, the net CO2 emissions from electricity
electrical grid of Crete will be interconnected with the grid of
generation in Crete will become zero. Taking into
Continental Greece.
account that the potential of solar and wind energy in
Keywords: Electricity generation, wind energy, PV systems,
Crete
Crete, solar power, wind power, zero CO2 emissions
opportunities in these fields all over Crete, and various
is
pretty
high,
there
will
be
investment
new jobs will also be created. Currently due to
I. INTRODUCTION
governmental financial incentives, there is a strong
ower generation in Crete is currently achieved using
interest from private investors for the creation of new PV
oil and renewable energy sources (RES), mainly
stations in Crete. Recently, at the end of May 2009, the
wind power and in lesser extend with small hydro, biogas
Ministry of development allowed the installation of new
and PV systems. The electrical grid of the island is not
PV stations in Crete with nominal power 88 MW. In
interconnected with the power grid of Continental Greece
addition there are various investors interested in
and it is autonomous.
development of solar thermal power stations in the
P
The installed power of wind and solar power systems
island.
in Crete, should not exceed 30% of the installed power of
In the following Table I the current power system of
the existing conventional thermal power stations (using
Crete is presented, where the small hydro and biomass
oil as fuel) according to the Greek legislative system.
stations of minor importance are not included.
Recent data prove that 14% of the annual consumed
electricity in Crete is currently generated from the 22
1
TABLE I. POWER SYSTEM OF CRETE
4000
3500
II. FUTURE POWER DEMAND IN CRETE
The electricity demand during 2004 in Crete was
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
2.500 GWh. During the previous years the annual
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
Year
(approx 4-4,5%). In the following table II, the annual
electricity demand in Crete is presented followed by the
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2004
0
increase of electricity consumption in Crete was high
2005
Existing thermal power plants using oil
Existing wind farms
Wind farms with licences (under construction)
PV with licences
Solar thermal power plants applied for licences
Hybrid systems including wind farms with pump
storage applied for licences
POWER
(MW)
800
160
70
80
274
240
Electricity Demand (GWH)
SYSTEM
Fig. 1. Forecast of electricity demand in Crete until the year 2020.
demand forecast up to year 2020. For the period 20042008 an annual increase of 4% is assumed, during the
period 2008-2012 an increase rate 2% and during the
III. COVERING THE FUTURE ELECTRICITY
period 2012-2020 an increase rate 1%. This scenario
DEMAND IN CRETE WITH WIND, SOLAR
accepts lower annual increase rates during the years
THERMAL AND PV SYSTEMS
2008-2020, due to the current financial crisis and the
The cover of all the electricity needs of Crete with
energy saving that will be achieved because of the
renewable energy sources and particularly with wind
implementation of the EU directive 2006/32. The data are
,solar thermal and PV systems can be achieved only if
presented in table II and in figure 1.
the electrical grid of the island will be interconnected
with the power grid of continental Greece.
TABLE II. ELECTRICITY DEMAND IN CRETE DURING THE
PERIOD 2004-2020
According to a recent survey (REF) conducted in
2004
ELECTRICITY
DEMAND (GWH)
2500
2005
2600
(www.rae.gr) the abovementioned interconnection is both
2006
2704
technically and financially feasible. Assuming that this
2007
2812
2008
2925
2009
2983
2010
3043
2011
3104
2012
3166
The following three hypotheses are made:
2013
3198
1) The PV systems generate annually in Crete
2014
3230
2015
3262
2) The wind power systems generate annually in
2016
3295
Crete 2.628 KWh per 1KW (annual load factor
2017
3328
2018
3361
2019
3395
2020
3428
YEAR
National Technical University of Athens for the account
of
the
Greek
Regulatory
Authority
of
Energy
can be obtained before the year 2020, the estimation of
the required wind , solar thermal and PV systems which
will generate the electricity consumed annually in Crete
are presented in table II , and in figure 2.
1.400 KWh per 1KWp.
0.3).
3) The solar thermal power systems
generate
annually in Crete 2240 KWH per 1 KW
installed (Theseus, 1998)
2
TABLE III. POWER OF WIND FARMS, PV & SOLAR THERMAL
SYSTEMS TO COVER ALL THE ELECTRICITY DEMAND IN
CRETE IN THE YEAR 2020 (3.428 GWH)
ELECTRICIT
SYSTEM
POWER
Y
(MW)
GENERATED
-
Biogas produced from sewage treatment plants
and from Landfills is currently being used for
generation of small amounts of electricity.
-
Water resources of Crete do not allow the
existence of large Hydroelectric plants. Two
(GWH)
Installed power of wind systems to
cover whole electricity demand
Installed power of PV systems to
cover whole electricity demand
very small hydro plants (300 KW each) operate
1.304
3.428
2.448
3.428
913
2.400
at the moment in Western Crete. The creation of
pump storage systems in the future in Crete, will
allow the installation of more wind farms and
PV systems in the island.
Installed power of wind systems to
cover
70%
of
the
electricity
-
demand
Solid biomass is currently used for heat
production in Crete (but not for power
Installed power of PV systems to
cover 30% the electricity demand
734
-
Installed power of Solar Thermal
systems
to
cover
100%
generation).
1.028
the
1.530
3.428
High enthalpy geothermal fields do not exist in
Crete.
On the other hand, solar thermal power systems are able
electricity demand
to generate large amounts of electricity but there are
many obstacles due to land usage and the negative
POWER (MW)
ELECTRICITY GENERATED (GWH)
perception for such investments from the local societies.
Power (MW) & Electricity (GWH)
4.000
3.500
Therefore it seems that most probably the wind power
3.000
and PV systems can be used extensively in the future for
2.500
power generation in Crete.
2.000
1.500
V. CO2 EMISSIONS IN CRETE DUE TO
1.000
ELECTRICITY GENERATION
500
0
W 100%
PV 100%
W 70% + PV
30%
ST 100%
Scenarios
Electricity is generated currently in Crete mainly
with the use of oil and wind energy. The use of oil results
in harmful CO2 emissions. Assuming that in 2020 85% of
Fig.2. Schematic depiction of the four scenarios in order to cover whole
electricity demand in Crete
the generated electricity in Crete will be produced from
oil (2.914 GWh), and the generation of 1KWh from oil
In addition there will be new jobs created throughout
results in the production of 0.70 Kg of CO2, it is
the island. Indicatively, each system will create the
concluded that in 2020 the use of oil for electricity
following new jobs per 1 MW installed:
generation in Crete, will result the emission of 2.04X10 6
-
Solar thermal: 10 in construction & Installation
tn CO2. Therefore the use of RES for electricity
and 1 in operation & maintenance
generation in Crete, will avoid the abovementioned CO2
Wind: 15 in construction & installation and 0,4 in
emissions. Taking into account that the cost of CO2
operation & maintenance
emissions is approximately 25 €/tn, the avoidance of
PV: 35 in construction & installation
emitting 2.04X106 tn CO2 annually, results in a benefit of
51 mil. Euros per year.
IV. USE OF OTHER RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
FOR ELECTRICITY GENERATION IN CRETE
The availability of other renewable sources in Crete
does not allow their use for generation of large amounts
of electricity.
VI. NECESSARY INVESTMENTS IN WIND, PV AND
SOLAR THERMAL SYSTEMS
The extensive use of wind , PV and Solar Thermal
systems for power generation in Crete requires a lot of
3
investments for the
necessary infrastructure.
The
in Wind , solar thermal and PV systems will create new
estimated unit cost for each system per installed 1 KW,
jobs in Crete in order to study, to install, to operate and to
is estimated to 900 € for Wind systems, 5.500 € for PV
maintain those systems. Related with jobs creation , more
systems and 4.000 € for Solar Thermal systems. In table
jobs are created in PV systems , and less in Wind and
IV and in figure 3 , are presented the necessary
solar thermal power systems. However oil is used for
investments.
heating buildings and also various conventional fuels are
used for vehicles transport, which result in CO2
TABLE IV. INVESTMENTS IN WIND , SOLAR THERMAL AND
PV SYSTEMS IN CRETE FOR COVERING ALL ITS POWER
NEEDS IN THE YEAR 2020
INSTALLED
SYSTEM
POWER
(MW)
ANNUAL
emissions. Although oil can be partly replaced with solar
energy and biomass in heating buildings, it is not easy to
%
TOTAL
ELECTRICITY
ANNUAL
INVESTMENT
produce alternative fuels for vehicles transport in Crete.
GENERATION
DEMAND
COST
Therefore the mitigation of CO2 emissions due to the use
(Billions €)
(GWH)
WIND
1.304
3.428
100
1,17
PV
2.448
3.428
100
13,46
WIND
913
2.400
70
0,82
PV
734
1.028
30
4,04
SOLAR
1.530
3.428
100
6,12
of conventional fuels for vehicles transport and for
heating buildings is not going to be obtained easily.
VIII. REFERENCES
THERMAL
1.
Total Investment Cost (Billion Eur)
extensive applications of renewable energy sources
14
in Europe and Mediterranean,” presented in RE-
12
islands conference, Brussels, 21-9- 2005.
10
Billion Eur
N. Zografakis “CRETE: A preferential island for
2.
8
J. Vourdoubas, A. Pitaridakis, C. Litos, “CO2
emissions from the use of fossil fuels in Crete –
6
Greece,” presented in DEMSEE 2007 Conference,
4
Istanbul, Turkey, 19-20 /9 /2007.
2
3.
0
W 100%
PV 100%
ST 100%
W 70% + PV
30%
emissions from the use of renewable energy sources
in Crete,” presented in the 3rd international
SCENARIOS
conference ENERTECH, Athens, Greece, 2008
Fig.3. Schematic depiction of the total investment cost for each scenario
4.
Apart from the investments in the abovementioned
production systems, more investments are needed to
J. Vourdoubas, N. Zografakis “Mitigation of CO2
EU directive 2006/32 on energy end use efficiency
and energy services.
5.
“Interconnection of Greek islands with the power
grid of continental Greece”, National Technical
improve the operation of the existing electrical grid.
University of Athens, 2009, Available in www.rae.gr
VII. CONCLUSIONS
6.
in RES in Crete”, Technical Chamber of Greece,
The possibility of interconnecting the power grid of
Crete with the grid of Continental Greece will offer the
opportunity for further development of solar and wind
Chania, 22-23/5/2009
7.
energy recourses of Crete. Investments in wind , solar
thermal
and PV systems, which are not allowed
Concluding remarks of the conference “Applications
“Job creation potential in solar energy”, Report of
the Canadian solar industries association, 2005.
8.
“Wind at work –Wind energy and job creation in the
nowadays due to various limitations and grid stability,
EU”, Report of the EU Wind energy association,
will offer the opportunity for the island to cover all its
2009.
electricity demand with renewable energy resources. This
9.
“Creation of a solar thermal power plant 50 MW in
fact will decrease the use of oil and will also reduce CO2
Crete”, data of THESEUS project on Crete island,
emissions in the island. At the same time the investments
Chania, 1998
4
5