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Tapping into geothermal energy for production of pharmaceutical cannabis in Greece

Tapping into geothermal energy for production of pharmaceutical cannabis in Greece Coastal city of Kavala, Greece (source: flickr/ Andreas Kontokanis, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 21 Dec 2018

A Greek municipality has attracted interest by investors from the U.S. and China for industrial development utilising geothermal energy. Beside plans for touristic investment, it also features production of pharmaceutical cannabis with the help of geothermal energy.

A U.S. investor is planning to use geothermal energy for the production of pharmaceutical cannabis in a project in Greece, as reported locally. With that the efforts of the Municipality of Pangeos to attract investors taking advantage of the competitive advantage of cheap renewable energy, bear fruit.

The project in the region of Eastern Macedonia-Thrace has an estimated investment volume of EUR 18.5 million. According to the mayor of Pangaio, Filippos Anastasiadis, “the construction studies are completed, the district chief, Christos Metios, and the managing authority of the region are informed and in a very short time we will submit the complete dossier of studies”. Its exploitation envisages the construction of the infrastructures that will allow the extraction and transportation of the economic and renewable geothermal energy in the area of Orfanos Municipal Unity.

U.S. Investor

The mayor highlights the importance of interest from a large company for the realization of a significant investment in the cultivation and production of pharmaceutical cannabis. “This investment gives very good and sustainable prospects to our entire project of exploiting the geothermal field, with significant revenues for the municipality and DEFAA Pangeo, while creating many jobs.”

It is a branch of a large American company that has the know-how to best realize the specific investment benefiting from the geothermal fluid. The planned investment is expected to require the consumption of significant amounts of energy, which can be covered by the geothermal energy pumping and transport infrastructure to be implemented by DEYAA Pangeo. The implementation of the investment significantly enhances the viability of DEYAA’s investment plan as it drastically increases the available thermal energy available from the geothermal field, as evidenced by the field certification actions already carried out by DEYAA.

The contract with the company covers an area of 200 acres, will have a 25-year duration, a period corresponding to the concession granted by the Decentralized Administration of the geothermal field, but it is certain that the positive course of the investment will lead to its renewal.

Chinese interest

Last July, two Chinese investors visited Mayor Pangeo and expressed their interest in investments in the municipality, which are related to the geothermal field of Akropotamos. Mr. Anastasiades says the Chinese investment interest concerns a 10,000-acre municipal area where the Chinese seek to exploit the benefits of geothermal energy to create tourism infrastructure. He notes that this property is close to the sea, increasing the benefits of a potential investment.

The Akropotamou geothermal field is located in the coastal zone of the municipality of Pangaiou between the area of Loutra Eleftheres and the beach of Karyne.

Source: Ypaithros