Greece Looking to Repay Debts with.. Solar Power

Sunny-lucky Greece has not been doing well financially, as I think you know. But it’s looking to tap into that solar treasure chest in order to pay back some of its financial saviors, such as soon-to-be-nuclear-free Germany.

EU’s energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger, the director general for energy Philip Lowe, and the head of the EU’s Athens task force Horst Reichenbach have been discussing this idea in recent weeks.

Apparently, not many EU nations or companies have been gung-ho about this right off the bat. Germany is the core potential client at the moment. But Philip Lowe has now been asked to look into the potential here in more detail.

“Several German companies have expressed interest in the idea but it would clearly be more interesting if several member states were involved,” EurActiv reports.

Interesting facts at the moment:

• Greece has 50% more solar potential than Germany;
• Germany produces about 80 times more solar power than Greece;
• Athens announced Project Helios in September, a plan to go from 206 MW of solar power capacity today to 2,200 MW in 2020 and 10,000 MW in 2050 (a project projected to create 30,000-60,000 jobs) — the goals are far from sure, but the plan is a significant step forward and signifies the country’s strong interest in following solar leaders Spain, Italy, and Germany in order to realize more of its solar potential.

Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, mentioned this potential trade with Greece while calling for German solar subsidies to be reduced at the beginning of October. And Philipp Rösler, Germany’s economy minister, further promoted it in Athens.

“In the spirit of solidarity, it is the task of all Europeans to help Greece get back on its feet economically,” Rösler said. “And we want to take German firms to Greece.”

We’ll see what comes of this. It’s definitely an interesting proposal that could solve a number of problems facing Greece, the EU, and the world.

Photo credit:  Some rights reserved by Egui_