ENVIRONMENT: Italian Energy Runs out of Wind

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ernesto Ferrini

MILAN, Jul 7 2003 (IPS) - Energy from wind is picking up around the world, but slowing down in Italy.

The Italian wind industry added 264 mw from wind in 2001, 63 percent above the previous year, but only 106 mw last year. This year it could be even less.

That is not the way the wind is blowing across the rest of the world. A study by Greenpeace and the European Wind Energy Association shows that production of energy from wind grew 34 percent a year globally from 1998 to 2001. At the beginning of last year, wind produced enough energy for 14 million households around the world.

As the market has grown, costs have fallen dramatically, the study says. Production costs are a fifth now of what they were 20 years ago and can at places challenge gas, currently the cheapest energy source.

With 785 mw installed by the end of last year, Italy is the fourth largest producer of energy from wind in Europe. The leader is Germany with 12,000 mw, followed by Spain (4,830 mw) and Denmark (2,880 mw). Denmark produces 18 percent of its electricity from wind, compared to 5 percent in Germany and Spain, and 0.5 percent in Italy.

Other major producers are the U.S. with 4,645 mw and India with 1,702 mw..

"The crisis of wind power is not the consequence of a shortage of sites for wind farms, nor of internal economies," Paolo Tabarelli, CEO of Italian Wind Technology (IWT), a wind turbine manufacturer told the Italian newspaper Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno.

"The problems are the unfinished incentive legislation and the slowness of Italian regions to authorise the setting up of wind farms," he said. The IWT has been running at only 50 percent capacity. Last month the company gave 140 of its 240 workers a 13-week lay-off.

Ciro Vigorito from ANEV (Associazione Nazionale Energia Vento), an association that represents nine wind power operators and manufacturers, agrees that the new incentive legislation is one of the main causes of the crisis.

The earlier legislation passed in 1992 obliged all electricity companies to pay a guaranteed premium price for green power over an eight-year period. This gave clean energy providers a sure return on investments.

The new legislation binds electricity firms to buy 2 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. The green providers would be paid for the energy they produce at prevailing market prices, and be given green certificates, which can be cashed at market prices.

Producers say their income is not guaranteed under the new provisions because prices depend on the market. On the other hand, investors have no incentive to generate clean energy above the two percent limit until 2005. Beyond that, they say market prices of green certificates will start to decrease if supply exceeds demand.

Further trouble for wind energizers comes from fears that wind farms may ruin the Italian landscape. Carlo Ripa di Meana, former minister of the environment and president of the National Landscape Committee, says wind farms "represent today the highest risk to the landscape and the natural environment of the Pre Alps, the Apennines, Sicily and Sardinia areas."

Ripa di Meana says wind farms meet no more than 0.5 percent of the demand for power, but have damaged the natural environment and brought discomfort to local people.

Environmental associations such as Legambiente and Greenpeace do not agree. They say that wind farms reduce damage to the ecosystem, and that some landscapes could benefit from them.

Two years ago, Legambiente and the company Enel GreenPower promoted ‘Wind Landscapes’, a competition to design two wind farms in the southern provinces Palermo and Potenza. But both regions have delayed plans to implement the projects.

"The regions don’t have clear rules," Legambiente director Edoardo Zanchini told IPS. "A part of the problem is that the government is not stimulating the development of clean energy. On the one hand, incentives are not enough. On the other, it is still approving new fossil fuel energy projects."

Franceso Ferrante, director-general of Legambiente said last month that the government had shown great concern for the aesthetic impact of wind farms, but done little to provide clear rules on how projects should be carried out.

"The paralysis of the industry is a big obstacle in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases," Ferrante said. "Moreover, it further delays the possibility of economic, industrial, and technological development for the environment."

Most EU countries will fail to reach the targets for renewable energy they have set for themselves, according to a study by WWF. Britain and Italy have the poorest record.

It is now estimated that by 2010, 17 percent of electricity in Italy will come from renewable sources, well below the target of 25 percent.

Germany will have to struggle to achieve its target of 12.5 percent, and Spain of 29.4 percent. Only Denmark (29 percent) and Ireland (13.2 percent) are expected to reach their targets with ease.