Project: RURENER Contract Number: EIE/07/547/SI2.499065

SWOT analysis

Vassiliki Kazana, Ph.D, in collaboration with

Angelos Kazaklis, M.Sc. and Anastasia Boutsimea, M.Sc

Technological Education Institute of Kavala (TEI KAVALAS) Department of Forestry & Natural Environment Management at Drama

1st km Drama-Mikrohori, 66100 Drama,

Greece

March 2010 With the support of:

Case study RURENER

Profile of Nikiforos DRAMAS State of the art 01/12/08

I. Geography, climate Location: Northern Greece, Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Prefecture of Drama Altitude: Ranges between 250m in the villages to 1260 m in the mountains of the municipality’s territory borders. Area: 243.81 km² Population: 3.821 inhabitants, who live in the area throughout the year Population Density: 15.67 habitants/ km² Biggest city close to Nikiforos: The city of Drama with 40.000 inhabitants (2001) located 16 km west of the Nikiforos village

The Nikiforos municipality land is characterized as mountainous at about 43% of it and semi-mountainous at the remaining 57%. The landscape of the area is dominated by a semi-mountainous strip of land enclosed by two mountain massifs. The mountain area’s relief is rough with steep slopes mainly due to the presence of marbles

Illustration 1: Satellite view of the Nikiforos municipality: main village

dominating this land of the municipality. On the contrary, the relief of the lowlands consists of low hills with mild slopes, as a result of the underlying sedimentary rocks, which are easily eroded. Interrupted aquifers are deployed only at the surface eroded part of the area and this makes their potential exploitation difficult. In terms of the area’s vegetation, three zones are distinguished; the typical low elevation Mediterranean vegetation of macquis and garrigue, the thermophilic deciduous oaks and the oro-Mediterranean vegetation zone with beaches and firs as the main tree species.

Land use The Nikiforos municipality consists of five villages: Nikiforos, Andriani, Ano Pixari, Platanias, Platanovrisi, Ptelea and Ipsili Rachi. Most of the non-urbanised space is used for wheat crops, vineyards, olive groves and mainly animal breeding. A natural attraction of the area for mountaineering is a gorge at the crossing of two local torrents and a small zoo near the Platanias plane forest. The land use distribution of the Nikiforos Municipality includes rangelands (70.5%), agricultural land (15%), forest land (10.36%), residential land (0.8%), public buildings (1.27%), industrial land (0.1%) and mines (1%). The community is connected to electricity network, but not to gas network.

Natural resources for energy The main RES of the area are: i) solar radiation, ii) wind energy, iii) energy crops and iv) biomass. A wind farm of total power 19.8 MW is already under construction near the village of Andriani, as a result of the cooperation between a private company (IKTINOS HELLAS S.A) and the municipality of Nikiforos. It consists of 11 wind generators and it is expected when finished at the end of 2009 to produce 57 GW. This is equivalent to

saving 44.000 t of CO2 emissions, that is as much as it could be saved by a forest of 6000 ha with 3300000 trees. This wind farm in full operation will cover the annual electricity consumption of about 11000 households. Two more wind farm investments are in the process of obtaining the required licenses and their construction will soon begin.

II. Inhabitants and activities There are 1583 households in the municipality of Nikiforos. Its total population increased from 3.350 inhabitants in 1991 to 3819 in 2001, that is, by 14%. Males constitute 48.8% of the total population and females 51.2%. Most of the inhabitants (45.89%) work in primary sector of economy, 25.61% in the secondary sector and 28.5% are occupied in the tertiary sector of economy. The unemployment rate in the municipality of Nikiforos is near 14%. Livestock is very important activity in the area. The total number of cattle, pigs and sheep rises to 20,978. There are also 2.000 beehives and 59 horses. The total number of agricultural holdings recorded in the area rises to 417. Oregano, tea, seeds and ornamental branches are some of the non wood forest products that are produced in the Nikiforos municipality. There are 17 schools in total (kindergarten, primary schools and high school) in the area.

III. Rational use of energy Although energy is among the three top priorities for the mayor of the Nikiforos municipality, Mr. Georgios Kariotis, no concrete energy policy plan has been developed for the municipality. However, some actions Mr. Kariotis is pursuing indicate his interest to develop soon such a plan. He has granted permission for installation of photovoltaic plants in communal land and he is also considering installing photovoltaic plants in a municipal building opposite the town hall in order to cover the Municipal buildings energy needs. The mayor although he enjoys good social acceptability for the wind

farm construction permits in the area, he believes that the population should become more aware of energy saving and renewable energy production. He is also interested in exploring possibilities for biomass energy production and energy production from residues and garbage. The 2008 energy consumption in the Municipality of Nikiforos was recorded equal to 19,347,012 kWh, which was distributed as follows: Residential: 8,864,800 kWh (45.82% of the total consumption) Commercial: 2,990,400 kWh (15.46% of the total consumption) Industrial: 720,000 kWh (3.72% of the total consumption) Public buildings: 141,812 kWh (0.73% of the total consumption) Agriculture: 6,630,000 kWh (34.27% of the total consumption) The total cost for the above energy consumption was calculated equal to €1,987,624. The mean consumption for the households is close to 2066.38 kWh/ inhabitant/year. The 2008 fuel consumption in the public sector was close to 21,960L (both for heat and vehicles) and the petrol consumption was 10,623.51L. There are no data for energy used for transport, wood for fireplace and bottle gas.

Mobilization of the population Several farmers in the area have already have changed their food crops to energy crops and it seems that this trend is increasing.

Legal framework and public policies There is still too much bureaucracy for renewable energy production and lack of incentives at the local level. Recently specific measures and incentives mainly for photovoltaic installations targeted to natural persons and small enterprises were announced by the Minister of Development. But, the results of these

measures will be evaluated in the longer run. Some energy saving programs were also run for Municipalities, but the urban ones. There is still much to be done in the legal framework to stimulate initiatives for the small rural Municipalities.

V. Analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

Weaknesses 1. Absence of a local Energy Plan 2. Insufficient infrastructure for RES use (eg. Injection of Biomethane into the natural gas grid) 3. Few RES/ES/RUE applications in the area 4. Low public awareness 5. No incentives at a local level 6. No feed-in-law for thermal applications

Strengths 1. RES potential -Solar radiation - wind energy -biomass -residues -garbage 2. Energy crops

Opportunities 1. Existence of areas suitable of taking measures 2. Suitable climate for bioclimatic applications 3. Private investors 4. Liberalization of electricity market 5. Subsidies – incentives

Threats 1. Lack of capacity and resources at regional and local level 2. Bureaucracy

INTERNAL

P O S I T I V E

N E G A T I V E

EXTERNAL

SWOT Analysis Template Municipality of Nikiforos Dramas

Annex : Geographic location