Greece was hit by devastating wildfires in August 2024, and false and misleading claims have spread about the exploitation of land for the purpose of building wind farms. Against this background, an image of a wind turbine blade is being shared misleadingly to suggest that wildfire-scarred regions of the island of Evia are being set aside to produce renewable energy. However, the shared image is old and actually shows wind turbines being transported to a port in western Greece. Furthermore, plans for a wind farm project on Evia, in the eastern Mediterranean, have long been cancelled.
“Soon neither 1 nor 2 but 92 wind turbines are expected to be installed from North to Central Evia, thus reaching the ‘magic’ number of 700. You read that right. 700 wind turbines. The burnt-out Evia of 550,000 acres has become… the battery of Greece’, reads a Facebook post from August 13, 2024, and shared over 2,100 times since.
It shares a picture of what appears to be a wind turbine blade being transported by an orange truck.
The same caption and same picture was also shared in this Facebook post shared on the same day over 370 times, which adds: “And while the green in Attica is disappearing, the ‘green development’… is doing well. In the photo, a part of a wind turbine is being transported to Laconia,” a region southwest of Athens.
Other similar posts were also found on Facebook here or here.
However, these claims are false and lack context. The picture being shared dates back to 2018 and shows the transportation of parts of wind turbines within the port of Preveza, more than 400 kilometres north. Furthermore, no wind farm projects are currently being studied or constructed in the areas affected by the 2021 fires in Evia, as Regulatory Authority for Waste, Energy and Water (RAAEY) data show and as the body confirmed to AFP.
The claims resurfaced after a serious fire broke out near the village of Varnavas, north of Athens, on August 11, 2024, and reached the surroundings of the capital a day later. Authorities evacuated towns and hospitals, while the flames burned Mount Pentelikon. The posts appeared the day after the fires reached Athens.
The fire caused the death of one person in a factory near Athens. The scar left by the fire was recorded by satellite (archived here).
Screenshots of the misleading (left) and the false (right) Facebook posts. Images capture: 20/08/2024
Arrival of wind turbine parts in Preveza
A reverse image search enabled us to find the photo published in an article in the local media AgrinioPress. The report dates to August 16, 2018, mentions the arrival of parts of wind turbines to the port. These were to be installed on Perganti mountain, south of Preveza and several hours from Laconia, where the Facebook posts claim they were being moved.
The same orange truck can be seen, along with other photos showing the parts being transported to the port.
As can be seen from the credits in the bottom right-hand corner of the images, the photos belong to the Eurokinissi press photography agency.
After a search on the agency’s website, we found the same photo as well as the others present in the online article, all dating from August 15, 2018, in the port of Preveza.
Screenshot of Eurokinissi website. Image capture: 21/08/2024
No new wind turbines north of Evia
A devastating fire burned some 50,000 hectares of the northern part of Evia island in 2021. The extent of the destruction can be seen in photographs taken by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus satellite, showing the extent of the destruction (archived here and here).
Satellite image from Copernicus Sentinel-2 showing the before and after fires in northern Evia in 2021. Image download: 21/08/2024. European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 images ( EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY)
The Facebook posts shared in August 2024 focus on the reuse of land in the aftermath of the fires, with the claim that “92 wind turbines will be installed from the north to the centre of Evia”.
However, on the website of the Regulatory Authority for Waste, Energy and Water (RAAEY), a publicly available map shows no wind farms are currently planned or under construction in the northern part of the island of Evia, as of August 21, 2024. This map contains the details and locations of every wind farm currently in operation, and permits granted for future wind farms or project applications that have been rejected by the authority.
However, it is possible to see in red on the map in the north of the island that authorizations for the construction of wind farms had been studied by RAAEY, as shown in the screenshot comparison below:
Screenshot comparison between the RAAEY map (left) and the Copernicus satellite photo (right). Images capture: 21/08/2024
According to documents available on the RAAEY website, wind turbine permits had been granted for Mount Telethrio in Evia on July 15, 2021, before the August 2021 fires in northern Evia.
This decision was criticised in the media after the fires, and was the subject of a letter from the former Minister of the Environment and Energy, Kostas Skrekas, asking RAAEY to revoke the permits.
In its decision of October 27, 2021 (downloadable here), RAAEY indeed revoked the permits granted on Mount Telethrio, which is why these areas are marked in red on the aforementioned map.
Contacted by telephone, RAAEY confirmed to AFP on August 20, 2024 that no projects were currently underway in the areas north of Evia burnt in 2021. It added that any new projects under study or construction would also be visible on the constantly updated online map.
Evia has a large number of wind farms in operation and under consideration, particularly in its southern area, as shown on the RAAEY map, but not in the area marked by wildfires:
Screenshot of the RAAEY map. Image capture: 21/08/2024
AFP had already verified claims about the fires on the island of Evia and the construction of wind turbines here as well as other wildfire claims here.
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Originally published here.
