KYKLADIKA MELTEMIA S.A.

Kykladika Meltemia S.A. is a Greek project development company within the Eunice Energy Group, focused on large-scale renewable energy and electricity interconnection projects in the Aegean and wider Eastern Mediterranean. The company is the promoter of the AIGAIO/Aegean wind power concept, an island-based onshore wind scheme that envisages installing over 100 wind turbines with several hundred megawatts of capacity on small uninhabited islets between the Cyclades and the Dodecanese. The original configuration submitted for environmental licensing in 2018 comprised 106 turbines with 486 MW across 14 islets, while later presentations in the EU project pipeline process described an expanded scheme of 138 turbines on 23 islets with a total capacity of 582 MW. The project is designed to be connected by subsea transmission cables to mainland Greece and to islands such as Crete, Kos and other Dodecanese locations, supported by new port facilities, access roads and service infrastructure on the islets. Kykladika Meltemia’s Aegean project has been positioned as contributing to EU and Greek decarbonisation targets, but it has faced strong opposition from environmental authorities and NGOs because of its location within and across numerous Natura 2000 protected areas that host globally significant seabird and marine mammal populations. After a series of negative opinions from the competent conservation bodies, Greece’s environment ministry rejected the project’s environmental permit in May 2021 on the grounds of significant and irreversible impacts, though the company has continued to seek regulatory avenues to keep the concept alive. In parallel, Kykladika Meltemia S.A. also acts as project promoter for high-voltage electricity interconnections, including Egypt–Greece links and a planned Athens–Crete corridor with multiple parallel subsea cables and converter stations, which have been put forward for inclusion on the European Commission’s Projects of Common Interest list.