Kentriki Macedonia region, Greece

Currently, there is no significant agricultural area in Greece covered by SRCs and the development of SRC has been mostly related to field trials established for RTD activities. Most of these research activities have been conducted by the Faculty of Forestry and Natural Environment, lab of Forest Genetics, the Forest Research Institute and by the project partner Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES). However, there is a lack of national or local dissemination campaigns supporting the importance of SRC to the general public, agriculture, heat production and industry. Additionally, there is a lack of information to the farmers, regarding the species selected for the establishment of SRC, the cultivation techniques and the equipment used in such applications. Today there is only one district heating application in the country (in municipality of Megalopolis) fuelled by wood chips and it is not fully operated. Their main heat resource is the waste heat from the power plant located in the area. Wood chips are produced by wood logs provided by the wood market. This means high cost for chips purchase and risk on security of wood supply.

The promotion and dissemination of SRC through the SRCplus project in the region of Kentriki Makedonia will create an efficient solution for farmers to increase their production and profits. This will also contribute to rotation of crops, improvement of soil quality and productivity agricultural lands. The production of wood chips combined with efficient energy production technologies (heat and CHP) will support the national policy on RES and energy production supporting also the achievement of 2020 EU targets.