Kardia lignite-fired power unit switches off for good

The emblematic lignite-fired power plant at Kardia in Western Macedonia was consigned to the country’s energy history books on Thursday.

The chimneys of the last unit at the facility have now stopped polluting the atmosphere with smoke, completing the gradual phaseout of the power complexes at Amyntaio and Kardia that began in June 2019.

The next lignite units to halt operation, according to government planning, are units 1 to 4 at Agios Dimitrios, in the same region, in 2022, followed in 2023 by Unit 5 at Agios Dimitrios, the Meliti plant and the fourth unit at Megalopoli, in the Peloponnese.