Solarizing Greece Is A Way Out of the Crisis

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/07/31/solarizing-greece-way-out-crisis

Greece is facing a depression on a scale arguably comparable to the U.S. Great Depression of the late 1920s. Huge unemployment rates and a dramatic drop in family incomes of more than 40 percent have Greek citizens pondering what the impacts will be of the new bail-out agreement. Unending austerity and lack of hope are all it seems the future has to offer.

But there is a way to start changing things for the better. With energy poverty emerging as one of the most dramatic symptoms of the recession—six out of every 10 households are struggling to pay their energy bills—it is high time that Greece seized upon its greatest and still largely unexploited asset: the sun.

The new “Solarize Greece” campaign by Greenpeace Greece aims to bring together all those who dream of a brighter and more sustainable future, not only for Greece but for all European countries. Its objectives are to help Greece kickstart solar power as a driver of the economy, to rid the country of the burden of fossil fuels that are holding it down economically and for Greece to fight its way back out of the crisis.

Solar power has worked minor miracles for Greece before. In the turbulent decade of the 1970s that saw two major global energy crises, the Greek government offered tax incentives to households for solar water heaters and a national policy was aimed at saving power. That led to hundreds of thousands of households installing solar heaters and significantly reduced energy bills. Equally important, a new industry was born and soon solar heaters became one of Greece’s finest export products. It seemed then that the sun had done its part to help Greece work its way out of a tight spot.