Marios Dionellis

The residents of the Rethymno mountains drove out wind turbines from their region.

  • Provocative Violation of the Law by ‘ΔΕΗ Renewables’ concerning distance from settlements.

Yesterday the residents of Rethymno sent a loud message to the law-breaking investors in wind energy, preventing the installation of three wind turbines within walking distance from the village of Adraktos in the mountains of the Municipality of Agios Vasileios. From four o’clock in the morning, after being informed that the wind turbines had been unloaded at Souda Port, the residents set up a blockade on the access road, specifically in the Kissou Kampos area.

The trucks carrying the wind turbines set off from Chania and peripherally, through Heraklion, traveled with a large police escort first of all to Moires, where they remained parked for hours. At the same time, the Agios Vasileios Municipality filed precautionary measures against the company ‘ΔΕΗ Renewables’ since, as stated by the mayor, Giannis Tatarakis, the company had applied for a license for their heavy vehicles to cross the territory but they had never received it.

Members of the Rethymno Committee against Industrial ΑΠΕ who immediately mobilized pointed out that this specific wind power plant is now operating without a license since the approval of its environmental status had expired in September 2020, while installing the three new wind turbines is blatantly illegal. As reported in the Editors’ Newspaper, Katerina Korray, a member of the committee, stated that, based on international law, the wind turbines must be located at a distance greater than 500 meters from settlements, while in this particular case they will be located at a distance of just 260 meters from Adraktos village.

Indeed, as was reported in an earlier article in the Editors’ Newspaper (‘ΔΕΗ bribed us to install wind turbines’ – 5.3.2020), the ΔΕΗ Renewables company had made brazen efforts to influence the opinion of residents not to comply with the law. In a document we had published, the company promised the exorbitant amount of € 350,000 over five years to local associations of the villages of Adraktos, Aktounta and Vatos; villages with a permanent population of 35, 50 and 10 residents respectively.

Today, nearly a year later, the company is back, this time accompanied by the police, which begs the question: how can they protect commercial activity which obviously violates the law. The municipal authority of the area stands by the residents.

  • About 12 noon yesterday it was announced that the trucks with the wind turbines were returning to Heraklion and possibly from there to Souda, while the residents declared they will stay on constant alert against any other similar attempts.

Source: Editors’ Newspaper – fsynkriti.gr

 

Translation by Jeannette A. Arduino,  from the voluntary Pressenza translation team. We are looking for volunteers!