This Europe: Gods of wind augur well for Greek church

The Greek Orthodox Church is likely to profit from an everyday act of God after winning approval to set up wind parks in a bid to enter the deregulated power market.

Travellers in Greece cannot fail to notice the chapels and monasteries that adorn every hilltop. Greece has, since ancient times, been the domain of Aeolus, the divine keeper of the storm winds, the anemoi, and commander of the four wind gods – Boreas, Zephyros, Notos and Euros.

But the church, Greece's largest landowner, has not been put off by these pagan associations.

It has put itself at the head of a new breed of energy entrepreneurs looking to step in as the public power corporation relaxes its monopoly on electricity generation.

"We foresee an Aeolian energy boom in Europe, and Greece in particular, comparable to that of the mobile phone industry," Demosthenis Agoris, from the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES), said.

At present, the bulk of Greece's power needs are met by burning lignite, but the switch to natural gas and renewable resources will change this.

Wind power already accounts for 1 per cent of Greek electricity production, the largest proportion in the EU, and the CRES believes that this could be raised to 6 per cent within only three years.

The church initiative is the brainchild of their economic director Costas Pilarinos. Four monasteries have been given the go-ahead on the islands of Evia and Lefkada, as well as Achaia and Arcadia in the Peloponnese, and will be harvesting the heavenly winds from January.