By Chryssa Liaggou

Operating wind power capacity in Greece grew by 5.4 percent in the first five months of 2012 from last year, amounting to 1,723.06 megawatts, according to market data released this week by the Hellenic Scientific Association of Wind Energy (ELETAEN). The new wind power installed within 2012 comes to 88 MW.

This was mostly realized by Enel (28.35 MW), Electricite de France, or EDF (24 MW), Ellaktor (20 MW) and Attica Ventures (12.4 MW). The investment involved exceeds 115 million euros.

On a regional level, Central Greece leads in installed wind power with 31.7 percent, or 546.2 MW, while the Peloponnese follows with 19.8 percent, or 341.05 MW.

Five groups share about two-thirds of the installed power. They are EDF with 297 MW (17 percent), Iberdrola Rokas with 250.7 MW (14.6 percent), TERNA Energy with 241.5 MW (14 percent), Enel with 200.8 MW (11.7 percent) and Ellaktor with 151 MW (8.8 percent).

Notably, there are at the moment additional wind parks in the construction or contracts stage that have a combined capacity of 216.5 MW and are expected to go into operation within the next 12 months.