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Rome aims to stop using Russian gas by 2025 and intends to accelerate the movement in renewable energies, “unique long-term strategy”.
The first wind turbines in the Mediterranean are off the Italian coast, in Puglia, in front of the port of Taranto, a city hitherto known above all for its gigantic polluting steelworks.
AFP
The first wind turbines from the Mediterranean Sea are starting to poke off the Italian coast, a symbol of hope for Europe, facing a major energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Once completed, this wind farm located in Puglia, the heel of the Italian Boot, will extend in front of the port of Taranto, a city hitherto known above all for its gigantic polluting steelworks.
“It’s a great opportunity to change opinions on renewables,” says Fabio Matacchiera, who campaigns for the defense of the environment in this city where the number of cancers in children is well above the national average, but where people cling to jobs in declining industry for lack of alternatives.
Italy imports 95% of its gas
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, launched in February, led the European Union to commit to drastically reduce its dependence on Russian gas, in particular by accelerating its production of renewable energies. The Peninsula is one of the biggest European consumers of gas, which currently accounts for 42% of its energy consumption. It imports 95% of its gas, including 45% from Russia.
“Accelerated investment in renewable energy remains the only long-term strategy,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi said last week in Parliament. The country aims to stop using Russian gas by 2025.As war rages in Ukraine, the Italian government has given the green light to six new onshore wind farms, from Sardinia to Basilicata, while pledging to unlock “several tens of gigawatts of offshore wind power.”
“Virtually invisible” turbines
Offshore projects are more complex: the average depth of Mediterranean waters is much greater than in other regions such as the North Sea, making installations anchored to the seabed more complex and expensive. The Mediterranean is also a sea where traffic is very dense, while being the most sensitive in Europe to climate change.
The invention of floating turbines, however, increased its potential. France has just issued the first call for tenders for a floating offshore wind farm, and other countries around the Mediterranean, such as Greece and Spain, are also considering it, according to the WindEurope association.
Once completed, the Beleolico park in Taranto will have ten turbines capable of supplying 21,000 homes. Renexia, the company that manages the park, also has in its boxes a project for a floating park of 190 turbines off the coast of Sicily, which might supply energy to 3.4 million families and create hundreds of jobs. Some fear the project will spoil the landscape, but Renexia chief executive Riccardo Toto assured the turbines would be “virtually invisible” from the coast.
Italy’s Ecological Transition Ministry has received 64 expressions of interest for offshore wind farms, but the number of projects nipped in the bud by bureaucracy is “staggering”, according to WindEurope. For example, it took 14 years to bring the “Beleolico” project to fruition, which should finally be operational by May. The head of Greenpeace Italy, Giuseppe Onufrio, considers these delays “absurd”. “Some projects are licensed following six or seven years, as technology changes from year to year, with the risk of parks being licensed when they are already outdated.”
Davide Tabarelli, professor of economics and president of the Nomisma Energia think tank, says he is “stunned” to see the Prime Minister presenting renewable energy as the only strategy, while “serious problems” persist, including the difficulty of storing wind energy. Suitable batteries do not yet exist, and wind farms connected to the national electricity grid are simply cut off when they produce too much electricity.
Rome’s commitment to turn off the Russian gas tap puzzles him: “As if, following 30 years of promises on renewable energy, the problem might be solved in a matter of weeks.”
(AFP)
