Renewables revolt in Sardinia, Italy’s coal-fired island

The bolts securing the towering wind turbine have been unscrewed beneath cowl of darkness, an act of sabotage symbolizing a vehement pushback in opposition to renewable power in Sardinia.

Lengthy summers and strong winds make the Italian island a chief location for wind and solar powerhowever intense investor curiosity has spooked locals who say Sardinia is being exploited.

The loosened bolts have been found earlier than the turbine on the sting of the village of Mamoiada toppled over, but it surely was one in all a number of crops vandalized this yr as regional authorities drew up guidelines figuring out the place clear power buildings could be constructed.

“There’s been a visceral rejection of renewables. The situation is really heated, the vandalism an attempt to intimidate policymakers,” stated Marta Battaglia, head of environmental group Legambiente in Sardinia.

“People say renewables scare us… and they ruin the landscape, and therefore we will lose our identity,” she stated.

There was related resistance to renewables in different European international locations, like Britain and France.

“But (in Sardinia) the landscape is already being changed by climate change,” Battaglia stated.

The Mediterranean island’s once-lush hinterlands are scarred by drought and summer time wildfires rip by means of woods, sending smoke billowing over its white sand seashores.

It is usually the Italian area that emits probably the most planet-warming greenhouse gases per inhabitant, in line with environmental analysis and safety institute ISPRA.

Sardinia depends largely on coal. Some 74 % of its electrical energy got here from burning biomass or fossil fuels in 2022. Most of it was coal.

Italy is phasing coal-fired power plantsnonetheless. The 2 in Sardinia are set to close in 2028.

‘Invasion’

But regional president Alessandra Todde was elected in February on a pledge to cease what she dubbed the renewables “invasion”, after a surge in allow requests.

Critics say big companies are trying to put in giant crops that can produce much more electrical energy than Sardinia wants, with the surplus despatched on to the remainder of Italy.

A brand new electrical energy hall to the mainland is to open in 2028.

The surplus is also saved in Sardinia to make hydrogen to be used in industries which can be laborious to decarbonize.

Traders have taken benefit of an absence over the previous two years of nationwide pointers for regional guidelines.

Sardinia wants so as to add 6.2 gigawatts (GW) of inexperienced power to the present 2.78 GW by 2030 to assist Italy meet European Union targets to curb local weather change.

Italian energy grid firm Terna stated it has acquired 804 requests in Sardinia for renewable connections to the grid, totalling some 54 GW. Solely 0.4 GW have been granted.

‘Unsuitable’

The nationwide pointers have been lastly printed in June.

However Todde saved her electoral promise and in July ordered an 18-month moratorium on new inexperienced tasks, together with these accredited however the place work had not begun.

The federal government stated it can problem the motion in court docket.

Reaching the 2030 goal requires putting in an additional 1 GW of inexperienced electrical energy per yr in Sardinia, in opposition to the present 0.2 GW, in line with photo voltaic foyer Elettricita Future. The quantity can be laborious to attain with out constructing huge photovoltaic or wind crops.

Undeterred, Todde offered a brand new framework for renewables final month that ought to change into legislation by the yr’s finish.

Beneath the decree, “most of Sardinia will be unsuitable”, she stated.

Santolo Meo, electrical engineering professor at Federico II College in Naples, stated that “rather than bans”, the principles “should have indicated how to reconcile renewables with habitat protection”.

For instance, “Sardinia is one of the few regions that could very profitably exploit tidal energy, well off the coast,” he stated.

Specialists say the brand new laws imply 99 % of the island is now off limits. And the moratorium has not stopped the protests.

‘Arms off Sardinia’

Demonstrators shouting “hands off Sardinia!” rallied on the regional parliament in Cagliari final week, demanding renewables be restricted to rooftops and native power group tasks.

“We have to produce energy for Sardinia, for our own homes,” 36-year-old Davide Meloni from a neighborhood “Territorial Defense” group informed AFP. He slammed “attempts by multinationals to colonize” the island.

Different Italian areas have additionally seen allow requests shoot up, however environmentalists blame the Sardinia backlash on influential media retailers they are saying are fueling a distorted narrative on renewables.

The Cagliari protesters blamed huge enterprise, Rome and the EU.

“Sardinia is synonymous with wild landscapes, unblemished beauty,” 54-year-old Marta Rosas stated, as she pointed throughout the bay from the sea-front protest to a mountainous area past.

“It is what we inherited from our ancestors, and are fighting to preserve for our grandchildren”.

© 2024 AFP