Inteco Beteiligungs GmbH, an Austrian company owned by Russian billionaire businesswoman and philanthropist Yelena Baturina, continues the expansion of a project to generate, use and market renewable energy in Europe. In October, her structures completed the acquisition of a solar park near the city of Farsala in Greece. 

Experts state that energy produced by this relatively small solar park in Farsala may help avoid the emission of 800 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.  

According to the plans, the total investment into the project by Yelena Baturina's structures could reach € 20 million in the coming year. The representatives of the company evaluate the profitability of the acquired park at € 500 thousand per year.

The venture is responsible for the construction and commercial operation of solar parks in the south and south-east of Europe. Before the acquisition in Greece the company also purchased a solar park in Italy. Currently the company is considering a number of proposals to expand the capacities; the next acquisitions under consideration are in Greece and Cyprus.

Earlier this year, in an interview with the Austrian newspaper Wirtschaftsblatt, Yelena Baturina said: "We see the future of the project not just in expanding the capacities or producing more energy. We are now developing a subproject that consists in applying the technology that allows saving the energy obtained from renewable sources, which constitutes a whole new system of wise energy consumption".

Another trend within the energy project which is no less interesting is, "constructing and servicing individual solar parks located mostly on the roofs of enterprises - the consumers of energy". Ms Baturina indicated that a few such projects will be launched soon, "and considering all that, we are about to exceed the amount of investment we named before."

(Photo: Yelena Baturina [right] and Yury Luzhkov. Source: Commons Wikimedia)