Ai Stratis Island To Go Green
Greek island Ai Stratis won the government “competition,” announced by Development Minister Kostis Hatzidakis, to become the country’s first “green island” that will feature large-scale infrastructure for green energy, such as photovoltaic systems and wind farms.
Ai Stratis (also known as Agios Efstratios) is located in the northern Aegean Sea and currently has 260 inhabitants, according to Greek press reports. The island won the place of the first Greek green island -over candidate islands such as Milos, Nissyros, Lesvos, Chios, Samothraki, Santorini and Tilos- due to its small size (42 square kilometers).
According to the development ministry the investment would cost some three million euros.
The first “green island” was created in Denmark in 1997 when Samso Island won a government competition to become a model renewable energy community. Today, 100 percent of the Danish island’s electricity comes from wind power.