Renewable energy plants and the historic environment in Greece: policy and practice: Fid-Bau Portal

Renewable energy plants and the historic environment in Greece: policy and practice

Poulios, Ioannis / Scalia, Maria

The present study examines the relationship between the development of renewable energy plants and the protection of the historic environment in Greece from the perspective of policy and practice and with an emphasis on the role of the State. First, the study examines the legal framework that regulates this relationship, with reference to three categories of regulations: (a) regulations for the protection of the historic environment in general; (b) European conventions for the protection of the historic environment in the context of development plans (conventions ratified by the Greek government), and (c) regulations for the protection of the historic environment in the context of renewable energy plants. The emphasis is on the procedure for the approval and implementation of renewable energy plants in relation to the historic environment. Then, specific case studies of renewable energy plants in Greece are presented. These case studies demonstrate a contrast between the regulated and the adopted procedures. A critical review follows, in an attempt to explain this contrast: gaps in the legal framework are identified, as well as cases in which the regulated procedures are not followed. It is shown that the state, though having a strict and long-established system for the protection of the historic environment in general and though ratifying European conventions for the protection of the historic environment in the context of development plans, proves unable to embrace renewable energy plants, leading to considerable failures. Moreover, the state does not seem to have learned from these failures over time. As a consequence, preventive protection is obstructed and even weakened.