The Municipality of Minoa Pediada is a lowland–semi‑mountainous municipality located in the center of the Heraklion Regional Unit. It is one of the most important agro‑urban areas of Crete, with numerous economic, social, and cultural activities. Arkalochori is the municipality’s main urban center, with a permanent population of 5,000 residents. The town has all modern public and municipal facilities (schools, municipal administration buildings, an Olympic‑size swimming pool, an indoor sports center, an exhibition center, etc.), and its inhabitants are employed in a wide range of professional sectors: agriculture, livestock farming, commerce, tourism, and industry (olive mills, wineries, carpentry workshops, and more). With an average altitude of 360 meters, the town has significant needs for both heating and cooling. There are abundant solid‑biomass resources, mainly originating from olive‑tree pruning.
The project foresees the creation of a biomass plant that will primarily use olive‑tree prunings, estimated at 20,000 tons per year. These prunings will feed a biomass boiler capable of producing up to 1.6 MWth of thermal energy. The district‑heating network to be installed will provide heating to households, municipal buildings, and commercial businesses at a significantly reduced cost compared to the current practice of using oil. It is worth noting that the municipal swimming pool will be heated by the new proposed unit, eliminating the current annual cost of €250,000 for heating it with oil.
It is also planned to install, near the town, a small number of up to two wind turbines, each with a nominal capacity of 60 kW. The proposed action can be further strengthened through decentralized electricity generation from PV systems. Electricity production from photovoltaics, combined with the installation of decentralized storage systems (batteries), will lead to reductions of around 70% in the electricity bills of the project’s participants.
If you are interested in learning more or in participating in the district‑heating project taking place in Arkalochori, you can fill in the expression‑of‑interest form located here
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