Advent Technologies Holdings Inc (ADN)

[WeTheMarket]

Four major investments remain on paper
Where is the licensing and implementation of "new generation" projects "stuck"?
Dimitris Delevegos
20.02.2024
https://www.kathimerini.gr/economy/562888999/paramenoyn-sta-chartia-tesseris-megales-ependyseis/

They were announced several years ago, while the legislative framework was changed in order to accelerate their implementation. However, the "new generation" strategic investments, which aspire to diversify, to a certain extent, the productive model of the Greek economy, if they do not remain a model, are at an embryonic stage. Despite the digitization of many state processes, the regime surrounding greenfield projects, for which, that is, there is no pre-existing construction, refers to the labyrinth of the Minotaur.

It is indicative that an investment consortium of a major project, which is being launched in a purely industrial area, had to provide a certificate, examined by a competent committee, that the activity it will develop, although not manufacturing, will not cause an impact on land of high productivity, i.e. agricultural. This certificate is only one of the supporting documents required by the investment file in order to be authorized. With bureaucracy and the co-responsibility of many different bodies and bodies continuing to give... With the resounding "present" and the cost of money having risen, it is no wonder why large greenfield projects show almost non-existent progress.

Data centers
Since October 2020, when it was announced that Microsoft will build a data center cluster in Attica, with a total benefit to the economy of €1 billion. Slightly more than three years have passed. Just in recent months, the first phase of the investment managed to find itself just before the starting line. What happened? In 2021, the change of the legislative framework for the strategic investments in which data centers were included, as well as the finding and acquisition of the necessary land by Microsoft in Spata, where one of the three facilities will be built, and Koropi.

In April 2022, Microsoft's three data centers were included in the strategic investment scheme, while in 2023 the company secured the building permit for the data center to be built in the industrial park of Spata (location Petra Gialos – Voulia – Prokalisi), on land acquired by the technology company from Lamda Development. Shortly before the expiration of 2023, Microsoft began conducting a tender, which is in the final stage, for the selection of the contractor that will implement one of the three data centers in the business center of Spata. In view of the publication in the Government Gazette of the Presidential Decree on the location of the project, the start of construction works is placed in the near future.

The creation of a cloud region in Attica, i.e. three data centers on which Google's digital cloud services will be based, was announced by the American technology company in September 2022. The estimated time horizon for the start of operation of the company's facilities was set at 2024.

Film studios
Investments in film studios can be characterized as strategic by taking incentives for accelerated licensing, based on the law of the Ministry of Development that was passed in 2021. To date, however, although Greece is a pole of attraction for international film productions, the construction of studios has not begun. The largest investment project of this kind is in the order of EUR 50 million. It includes the construction of a film production studio in "Platania" of Thermi, Thessaloniki and post-production of films, videos and television programs in Hellinikon by the company (affiliated with Nu Boyana Hellenic) "Vasilika Thermis".

According to the master plan of the project, the production studio in Thermi has a total area of 11,184 sq.m., will have outdoor shooting areas of 12,376 sq.m., production offices of 8,040 sq.m. and other supporting facilities of 4,000 sq.m. The second post production facility, with a total area of 3,511 sq.m., will include appropriately designed and equipped rooms for sound engineering, sound mixing, audio and video processing, and will be located in privately owned land of the company "Vasilika Thermi" in the area of Elliniko. The project was originally announced in 2019 as part of the 60th Thessaloniki Festival, but still remains in the planning phase.

Business parks
Slow progress is also being made in the creation of organized business parks that have the appropriate infrastructure to host manufacturing enterprises and industries. The lack of such facilities is one of the pathologies of Greek entrepreneurship because the sites, also known as manufacturing hosts, have developed unregulated, off-plan and without infrastructure, causing significant environmental and urban impacts. Nevertheless, the start of implementation of these co-financed projects by the Recovery Fund is significantly delayed at least one year, while they should be completed by the end of 2025. The cause?

For example, in the case of an industrial park to be cleaned up, it took the relevant authorities more than six months to send their comments on the project file. After the investor made the necessary adjustments, based on the observations, it took another seven months for the relevant services to officially announce that the project file is complete. As a result, this investment has been delayed for about a year, without yet securing final licensing.

According to older data from SEV's Business Environment Observatory, only 13% of manufacturing enterprises operate in business parks. In Attica, which represents 40%-45% of the country's total manufacturing production, there are only three integrated areas of organized receptors with a total area of 1,780 acres, i.e. only 2.86% of the total area of organized receptors.

Hydrogen unit
Green HIPo, as is the name of Advent Technologies' project, which has as its object the construction of an innovative electrolyser and fuel cell production unit in Western Macedonia, claimed, for the first time, European funding in September 2021, having an initial budget of € 782 million. euro. Ultimately, the company, which develops hydrogen technology, will receive a grant from Greece's Just Transition Fund corresponding to 24% of its total (revised) budget of €60 million. euro. The project foresees the construction, over a seven-year period, of high-temperature fuel cells, with a total electricity output of 400 MW and corresponding thermal capacity, as well as electrolysis units with a total capacity of 4.65 GW, in the company's production lines to be installed in Western Macedonia.

However, due to bureaucratic – financial issues, the start of its implementation remains at ground zero, while the initial timetable foresaw that it would start to be implemented in the first half of 2023. It remains to be seen whether there will be movement within the month. Hydrogen is the fuel of the future, according to experts. It does not emit carbon dioxide and can serve the goal of decarbonisation because – unlike renewables – it does not depend on wind potential intensity and sunshine.

The numbers
€1 billion At least the economic footprint on the Greek economy is expected to be from the development of Microsoft's three-center data center complex.

€50 million € the amount of investment for the construction of production and processing studios (post-production) in Thessaloniki and Elliniko.

13% of manufacturing enterprises operate in business parks, whose implementation rate lags behind the original schedule.