Renewable energy speculation brewing a storm in Sardinia

The windswept Italian island is a prime location for harvesting the energy of the future. But residents fear poor planning of wind farms and unregulated speculation will turn their homeland into a European Wild West for renewables.

Projects for renewables mushroom offshore and onshore Sardinia paving the way for a stormy energy transition. The Italian autonomous region of Sardinia has imposed a moratorium in face of massive requests for wind and phoptovoltaic plants. Residents’ committees promise they will defend their island against “the renewables’ invasion”. Reporter Monica Pinna goes to find out what’s at stake.
 Europe has set a huge challenge: becoming carbon-neutral by 2050. All EU countries are working to reach this goal. Italy has a midterm target of producing 80Gw more green energy by 2030 and all its regions have to contribute.  
Sardinia will have to do its part by producing a minimum of 6.2GW green energy by the end of the decade. But it has received requests for over 56Gw. Multinationals’ demands have skyrocketed due to a 3-year delay in a national law on suitable areas. Residents have taken to the streets asking clear rules to manage the energy transition.  
“We demand that the rights of residents and landowners are respected and that there is economic benefits.”  Says Giancarlo Ballisai, co-founder of Nuraxi Figus residents’committee.
The case has turned into a political battle between the Italian government and the regional government. Rome has been encouraging wind farm construction with incentives and considers renewables “strategic” for the country. This means photovoltaic plants and windfarms prevail over the landscape.
Regional authorities have blocked all new requests up to 18 months.  
‘We have set the task of stemming this mass of authorisations with a suspension that was meant to buy time, to construct a regional law for suitable areas” explainsAlessandra Todde, President of the Autonomous region of Sardinia.
President Todde plans to use the moratorium to make a regional energy plan and create a local energy company. “We have an opportunity as we can produce electricity and the producers can make the price. Sardinia has the possibility of playing an active role and not to suffer the management and energy on behalf of third parties,” she says.
 The Sardinian sea is also in the crosshairs of multinationals. On offshore installations it’s the government that decides. But the national maritime plan still doesn’t exist. This means projects are being evaluated without clear rules on where and how the plants should be installed. 
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