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Can solar energy help save Greece?
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/aiop-cse081413.php[font face=Serif]Public release date: 14-Aug-2013
Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi
jbardi@aip.org
240-535-4954
American Institute of Physics
[font size=5]Can solar energy help save Greece?[/font]
[font size=4]Anthropological analysis in 'Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy' puts perspective on solar sector's potential role in recovery[/font]
[font size=3]WASHINGTON D.C. August 14, 2013 -- What happens to renewable energy programs in a country that gets whacked by a full-scale debt crisis, like the one that struck Greece beginning in 2009 -- do the programs whither and die in the winds of austerity? And how do people view such programs when many of them can't afford to heat their houses?
…
Applying the methods of anthropology research, Knight lived with locals in central Greece for extended periods over the past two years to understand the influence of communities on renewable energy initiatives in Greece and both he and Bell interviewed homeowners, farmers, local government officials, engineers and renewable energy entrepreneurs, scrubbed archives and tracked media stories.
Many of the people they spoke with, including some energy providers and wholesalers, acknowledge that Greek solar initiatives in their current form are unsustainable and that policy changes will be needed in the future. But they also found that the government and the European Union (EU) as a whole are very poor at communicating policy to the local level, leaving people to discover energy initiatives by word of mouth.
Historically this has caused solar power to be clouded by suspicion, as many mainstream Greeks have feared that a rapidly privatizing energy sector would come to exploit them. Some people they spoke with said that they already felt compelled to put solar panels on their agricultural land, due to strict EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank austerity measures.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4807477Contact: Jason Socrates Bardi
jbardi@aip.org
240-535-4954
American Institute of Physics
[font size=5]Can solar energy help save Greece?[/font]
[font size=4]Anthropological analysis in 'Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy' puts perspective on solar sector's potential role in recovery[/font]
[font size=3]WASHINGTON D.C. August 14, 2013 -- What happens to renewable energy programs in a country that gets whacked by a full-scale debt crisis, like the one that struck Greece beginning in 2009 -- do the programs whither and die in the winds of austerity? And how do people view such programs when many of them can't afford to heat their houses?
…
Applying the methods of anthropology research, Knight lived with locals in central Greece for extended periods over the past two years to understand the influence of communities on renewable energy initiatives in Greece and both he and Bell interviewed homeowners, farmers, local government officials, engineers and renewable energy entrepreneurs, scrubbed archives and tracked media stories.
Many of the people they spoke with, including some energy providers and wholesalers, acknowledge that Greek solar initiatives in their current form are unsustainable and that policy changes will be needed in the future. But they also found that the government and the European Union (EU) as a whole are very poor at communicating policy to the local level, leaving people to discover energy initiatives by word of mouth.
Historically this has caused solar power to be clouded by suspicion, as many mainstream Greeks have feared that a rapidly privatizing energy sector would come to exploit them. Some people they spoke with said that they already felt compelled to put solar panels on their agricultural land, due to strict EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank austerity measures.
…[/font][/font]