عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Nepal Reopens Everest Despite Pandemic Uncertainty

Mount Everest and other Nepali peaks will re-open for the autumn trekking and climbing season after authorities lifted a nationwide virus lockdown | AFP
Mount Everest and other Nepali peaks will re-open for the autumn trekking and climbing season after authorities lifted a nationwide virus lockdown | AFP
TT
20
TT

Nepal Reopens Everest Despite Pandemic Uncertainty

Mount Everest and other Nepali peaks will re-open for the autumn trekking and climbing season after authorities lifted a nationwide virus lockdown | AFP
Mount Everest and other Nepali peaks will re-open for the autumn trekking and climbing season after authorities lifted a nationwide virus lockdown | AFP

Nepal has reopened its mountains -- including Everest -- for the autumn trekking and climbing season in a bid to boost the struggling tourism sector, officials said Friday, despite coronavirus uncertainty.

The Himalayan country shut its borders in March just ahead of the busy spring season when hundreds of mountaineers usually flock to the country, costing jobs and millions of dollars in revenue.

A nationwide lockdown was lifted last week, and Nepal is now open "for tourism activities, including mountaineering and trekking." Mira Acharya of the tourism department told AFP.

The government will permit international flights to land in the country from August 17.

The decision comes despite over 1,000 new coronavirus infections reported this week, with a total of 19,547 cases.

Officials were "working on" safety protocols Acharya added, including for how long visitors would have to quarantine on arrival.

Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, one of the biggest Nepali expedition organizers, said that clients were calling, but were waiting to find out how long arrivals will have to quarantine for.

"It would be a relief for mountaineering workers if we can run expeditions after an empty spring season," Sherpa said.

Tent cities grow at the foot of Everest and other peaks in the climbing seasons, with climbers and support staff all living in close quarters.

Breathing is already difficult at higher altitude -- adding to medical risks if there is an outbreak of any kind among climbers.

Lukas Furtenbach of Furtenbach Adventures said that they had cancelled all expeditions.

"I think running an expedition now would be trial and error. Trial and error was never our strategy for expeditions, where we are responsible for the lives of our staff and our clients," he said.

Mountaineering experts say the September-November season is more dangerous due to high winds and lower temperatures, and the world's highest mountains see only a handful attempt to climb them.

Autumn summits on Everest last year were thwarted by a serac -- a block of glacial ice -- hanging dangerously above the already treacherous Khumbu icefall that climbers have to cross to reach Camp 1.

Last year's traffic-clogged spring climbing season saw a record 885 people summit Everest, 644 of them from the south and 241 from the northern flank in Tibet.

The season ended with 11 deaths on the mountain, with at least four blamed on overcrowding.

Only a Chinese team reached the summit of Everest from its northern Tibetan side this year after all other expeditions were barred.

Most Viewed

 
Varieties

Sunny Greece Struggles with Solar Energy Overload

Solar accounted for 23 percent of the 55 percent of electricity consumed from renewables last year. Aris MESSINIS / AFP
Solar accounted for 23 percent of the 55 percent of electricity consumed from renewables last year. Aris MESSINIS / AFP
TT
20
TT

Sunny Greece Struggles with Solar Energy Overload

Solar accounted for 23 percent of the 55 percent of electricity consumed from renewables last year. Aris MESSINIS / AFP
Solar accounted for 23 percent of the 55 percent of electricity consumed from renewables last year. Aris MESSINIS / AFP

In a field in central Greece that once grew clover and corn, maintenance worker Nikos Zigomitros deftly drives a tractor between rows of solar panels, trimming weeds under a blazing sun.

"Letting them grow too high impairs the panel performance," the 52-year-old explains, wiping sweat from his brow.

Once a center of agricultural production, the area around Kastron Viotias, some 110 kilometers (70 miles) northwest of Athens, has seen solar parks mushroom over the past 15 years, part of a major renewable energy push in the country.

Greece currently has 16 gigawatts of renewable energy installed, with solar power representing nearly 10 gigawatts, including 2.5 gigawatts that came on line last year.

The rapid growth of solar is similar to other countries in Europe, where it has overtaken coal for electricity production, according to climate think tank Ember.

It estimates renewables have risen to account for nearly half of the EU's electricity production.

Greece did even better: 55 percent of annual consumption was covered by renewables last year, with solar accounting for around 23 percent, according to SPEF, an association which unites local solar power producers.

In 2023, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis predicted that Greece would "soon generate 80 percent of its electricity needs through renewables."

But getting there is proving complicated.

SPEF chairman Stelios Loumakis said that the solar sector has hit a wall because of a combination of factors, including Greece's small size, limited infrastructure and delays in building up energy storage capacity.

Saturated

The Greek state approved too many photovoltaic projects over the last five years and the market is saturated, leading to a "severe production surplus" on sunny days, the 56-year-old chemical engineer and energy consultant said.

Greece's national grid operator in May repeatedly ordered thousands of medium-sized operators to shut down during the sunniest hours of the day to avoid overburdening the network and triggering a blackout.

"The trick is to balance supply and demand. If you don't do it well, you get a blackout," said Nikos Mantzaris, a senior policy analyst and partner at the independent civil organization Green Tank.

In April, a huge blackout of unknown origin crippled the Iberian Peninsula. The Spanish government has said two major power fluctuations were recorded in the half-hour before the grid collapse, but the government insisted renewables were not to blame.

"It could be something as mundane as a faulty cable," Mantzaris said.

Batteries 'crucial'

To manage the surplus, Greece is building battery storage capacity. But catching up to its solar electricity production will take years.

"The next three years will be crucial," said Stelios Psomas, a policy advisor at HELAPCO, a trade association for Greek companies producing and installing solar panels.

In the meantime, solar panel operators will have to ensure production does not outstrip capacity, thereby limiting their potential earnings.

"Managing high shares of renewables -- especially solar -- requires significant flexibility and storage solutions," said Francesca Andreolli, a senior researcher at ECCO, a climate change think tank in Italy, which faces a similar problem.

"Battery capacity has become a structural necessity for the electricity system, by absorbing excess renewable energy and releasing it when demand rises," she told AFP.

Farm income

Mimis Tsakanikas, a 51-year-old farmer in Kastron, readily admits that solar has been good to his family.

The photovoltaic farm they built in 2012 at a cost of 210,000 euros clears at least 55,000 euros a year, far more than he could hope to earn by growing vegetables and watermelons.

"This park sustains my home," he said.

But the father of two also notes that the environmental balance has tipped in his area, with the spread of solar installations now causing concerns about the local microclimate.

Tsakanikas says the area has already experienced temperature rises of up to 4.0 degrees Celsius (7.2 Fahrenheit), which he blames on the abundance of heat-absorbing solar panel parks in the area.

"The microclimate has definitely changed, we haven't seen frost in two years," he told AFP.

"(At this rate) in five years, we'll be cultivating bananas here, like in Crete," he said.