Court halts wind farms threatening bird sanctuaries

File photo. [AP]

The Council of State has definitively blocked a wind workplace improvement task connected 14 islets successful the Cyclades and Dodecanese islands, canceling shaper licenses renewed by the Regulatory Authority for Energy.

The areas are biodiversity hotspots hosting threatened vertebrate species.

The task would person installed wind turbines connected islets and rocky outcrops adjacent Anafi, Astypalaia, Nisyros, Amorgos and Leros. The Environment Ministry had already rejected biology licensing successful May 2021, citing antagonistic assessments and captious gaps successful ecological studies.

Despite this rejection, the Energy Regulatory Authority renewed institution Cycladic Meltemia’s licence successful June 2022, prompting the Hellenic Ornithological Society to entreaty to the Council of State.

The court’s determination recovered the authorization failed to decently measure whether the islands were inhabited oregon uninhabited – important for determining density criteria. Several islets including Kinaros, Levitha and Syrna were incorrectly classified arsenic uninhabited contempt being registered arsenic populated successful the past census.