Tilos: the proof.
Tilos is a 64 km² island in the Dodecanese with roughly 500 year-round residents and 13,000 summer visitors. It is also the first island in the Mediterranean to run entirely on its own wind and solar. We chose it for the same reason the EU chose it: if a closed-loop system works here, it works on the other 199 inhabited Greek islands.
The island
Almost every leaf of lettuce on Tilos arrives by ferry from Piraeus — a 15-hour journey, refrigerated, double-packaged, and counted in days-on-shelf rather than hours-since-harvest. Drought summers are getting longer. Field agriculture on the island has all but collapsed. Tilos is small enough to measure end-to-end, and serious enough about energy autonomy that local government already speaks the language of closed loops.
The site
- Location
- Megalo Chorio, west-facing slope
- Build type
- Outdoor towers · no greenhouse
- Towers (Stage 1)
- 300 aeroponic, 52 ports each
- Capacity
- ≈ 15,600 plants on rotation, year-round
- Water source
- Natural island water
- Energy
- On-site PV + island wind feed
- SKUs (launch)
- Lettuces, basil, rocket, herbs, kale
- Operations
- 2 full-time local staff + 1 agronomist
Local partnerships
Chlora does not parachute in. Stage 01 is built with the people who already make Tilos work — municipal, scientific, and operational partners signed before a single tower lands on the island.
- Municipality of TilosSite lease, planning fast-track, and integration with the island's renewable-energy programme.
- Just Go Zero TilosGreece's flagship zero-waste programme — partner on greywater, compostable trays, and circular packaging.
- Agricultural University of AthensIndependent agronomy advisory: crop selection, nutrient recipes, and annual yield audits.
- Tilos hospitality networkAnchor offtake from the island's tavernas, hotels and the school canteen from week one.
- Agrotonomy (Tower Farms)Aeroponic hardware, IP and grower training under the Agrotonomy Tower Farms commercial license.
Build timeline
- Q1 2026Lease signed · permits filedMunicipality lease executed; environmental and building permits filed under fast-track island programme.
- Q2 2026Groundworks · PV · water infrastructureSite preparation, PV array, water connection, pack-house and outdoor tower foundations. Local crews.
- Q3 2026Tower install · first harvest300 outdoor towers commissioned. First commercial harvest 28 days after seedling transplant.
- Q4 2026Steady-state operationsFull SKU rotation. Weekly deliveries to tavernas, hotels, school canteen. Year-1 audit begins.
- Q2 2027Stage 02 site (Symi) breaks groundTilos data feeds the Symi build. Replication kit codified for islands 3–10.
Stage 01 unit economics
Numbers are conservative, modelled on Agrotonomy operational data from 10+ EU country deployments. Audited annually and published in Field Notes.
These figures cover Stage 01 only. Stage 02 onward benefits from a codified replication kit (hardware bundle, permit playbook, grower training) which reduces per-site capex by an estimated 25–30%.
Want the full Stage 01 dossier?
The investor brief includes full site drawings, the signed MoUs with Tilos partners, the cap table, and the financial model behind the unit economics above.