Geography of onshorw wind power harnessing in Greece (January 2025)

Description

The database includes all onshore wind turbines in Greece (12,547), based on the National Regulatory Authority for Energy’s online records as of January 2025. For each turbine, it provides information on power output (MW and GW), geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude), elevation, elevational category (above or below 1000 m a.s.l.), licence stage (Operation, Installation, Production, or Under Evaluation), geographic category of mainland or island, inclusion in the Natura 2000 network or not. Turbines in the Operation and Installation stages are classified as Current (operational or under construction), and those in the Production and Under Evaluation stages are classified as Planned (not yet built). Each turbine falls within the exclusion zone, where wind turbines should be banned, or the potential investment zone, where wind turbines should be considered in the licensing process. The exclusion zone includes: (a) areas proposed by Kati et al. (2021) where wind energy deployment is discouraged—namely, sites within the Natura 2000 network and landscapes of high naturalness (characterised by very low to low fragmentation using the European Landscape Fragmentation Index, LFI: effective mesh density <10; EEA 2019); and (b) roadless areas larger than 5 km² (Kassara et al. 2022), which compensate for LFI's overestimation of fragmentation on small islands (Kati et al. 2023a). The investment zone encompasses all remaining land in Greece. The scenario assumes that all Current wind power stations (WPS) will continue to operate, while only Planned WPS within the investment zone should be considered for future licensing. This open-access resource is designed for use by all stakeholders involved in wind energy development, including investors, the Ministry of Environment and Energy, policymakers, competent authorities, NGOs, and the general public.

Steps to reproduce

We used the following open geospatial data (databases): National Regulatory Authority for Energy – Wind turbine database. http://geoportal.rae.gr. Date of access: 5/1/2025 Natura 2000 database for Greece. https://www.ypen.gr. Date of access: 3/1/2025 Landscape Fragmentation Indicator (LFI). https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/landscape-fragmentation-effective-mesh-density. Date of access: 10/12/2024 Roadless areas dataset (Kassara et al. 2022). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7114625. Date of access: 20/12/2024 Step 1: We downloaded and compiled the official turbine-level database from the National Regulatory Authority for Energy [1], which includes all onshore wind turbines in Greece as of January 2025. For each turbine, we extracted power output (MW, GW), geographic coordinates, elevation, elevational range (above or below 1000 m a.s.l.), licence stage, geographic classification (mainland or island), and Natura 2000 overlap. Step 2: We classified the turbines into two groups based on their licence stage: – Current (Operation and Installation stages) – Planned (Production and Under Evaluation stages) Step 3: We spatially intersected turbine locations with the Natura 2000 network [2], tagging each turbine as either within or outside the network. Step 4: We assigned each turbine to one of two planning zones: – Exclusion zone: areas unsuitable for wind development, including: (a) the terrestrial Natura 2000 network and landscapes of high naturalness (effective mesh density <10, based on LFI [3]), as proposed by Kati et al. (2021); (b) roadless areas larger than 5 km² [4], to compensate for LFI’s overestimation of fragmentation on small islands (Kati et al. 2023a). – Investment zone: all remaining land. Step 5: We created a scenario in which all Current turbines remain operational, and only Planned turbines located within the investment zone are considered suitable for future licensing. This dataset can be used to inform Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), as well as spatial planning for energy, transport, and tourism projects. It is a general reference and not a substitute for site-level EIAs, AAs, or wildlife sensitivity maps.

Institutions

• Panepistimio Ioanninon

Categories

Funders

• Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation

  Greece

  Grant ID: 4th Call for HFRI PhD Fellowships (Fellowship Number: 11266)

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