The gate is barred. Road belonging to the forest, says a disused sign. The only rhythm of time here is marked by the rocking of a clapper hanging from the slow movement of the high altitude cattle. The hairpin bends to climb this promontory are the winding entrance into the afterlife, where the history of the earth stood still two hundred million years ago, when the somersaults of the universe projected the most ancient rocks onto this plateau. Taccu sa Pruna says the map, the highest point northeast of the great river, the Flumendosa. The expanse towards the horizon is a billiard floor. From here you can see the opposite front, that of the red giant, that Arrubiu nuraghe, cardinal point for the hinterland of the Sarcidano, between Orroli, Escalaplano and Esterzili. If you cross that fenced-in door without padlocks, in a moment you enter another geological era. The stone turned into rock is marked by time, black as darkness, streaked like the wrinkles of a millenary earth.
The lords of beyond the Alps
When the French, those of the EDF, a sort of Enel of France, sent geologists and drills here, on this plateau marked by time, no one imagined the daring thought that harbored in the frenzy of the electric imperialism of the lords who came from beyond the Alps . Almost nobody noticed the landing of the cockerels of France. Until then, the Paleozoic desert had remained untouched and inviolable. Until that eighteenth of November of last year, still in full pandemic, when in total silence the drill challenged the depths of the earth and the cold of altitude. On the first day that rotating blade that attacked the subsoil to bring its stratigraphy and consistency back to the surface managed to reach the modest depth of 5.5 meters. On the second day the "photographer" of the depths went up to 18 meters. The feedback from the first meter excavated did not change. The geological bank that surmounts the Nuraghe Arrubiu dam is a mountain of “Jurassic dolomites”, the rock dating back to the most distant times, when the continents distanced themselves and the earth took on the characteristics of the future.
Meloni called on the opposition and reassured them in a video on social media: "Nothing was found in the institutions. Those sending these threats want a nation that is terrified and fearful."
This morning, the Skan mural was unveiled at the ticket office, and the festival officially opens this afternoon. The event will get into full swing in the coming days.
Among the participants in Korea is Chisca, the brand of Nuoro native Maria Francesca Lunesu.
Giampiero Marras
Jurassic Olympus
Ancient lands on an island carved into the Olympus of longevity, even geological. When you walk in this proscenium you realize that the only one to have crept and shaped itself among these massive outcrops of the Jurassic of Sarcidano is the archaic Mediterranean scrub, strong and resistant, balsamic and restorative. The textbooks read: rocks with 150/200 million years of history. With the rock samples, from the ground level towards the depth, there are twenty-six meters thick of Jurassic dolomite, as old as it is hard. The continuation of the "coring" brings out what the sacred geological textbooks had long reported: this is one of the most agitated and ancient lands of the island. There is everything under there, from arenaceous dolomites to blackish siltstones to the shale rocks of the Santa Vittoria Formation.
They are not looking for oil
A real open-air museum of geological history in the heart of the island. As if they were looking for oil, the French of the energy body of Paris did not stop even on Christmas Eve, in the pouring rain and abundant snow. They drilled far and wide, three very deep drillings up to 59 meters deep. In that kind of rocks people usually look for black gold, here, instead, the geologists sent by Macron & company look for impermeable rocks, the structural solidity of that plateau above the great Nuraghe Arrubiu dam. Few know what goes through the minds of that multinational company that has come down to the land of Nuraghi to grab business and incentives with both hands.
To think badly
After all, to think badly sometimes you get it right. A few weeks ago on the basis of a ministerial “tip” we told of a French project, branded Edf, through Edison, to get our hands on the water of the Flumendosa to build a mega hydroelectric plant. Of the landing plan, however, only the title and a few other elements were known. For two months those papers, 470 folders, remained armored in the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Unable to log in. When the hydroelectric fort is ajar, the vortex of maps, sections, calculations reveals the project of “Taccu sa Pruna”. The French not only want to get their hands on the water of the Flumendosa, but have put pen to paper a project as daring as it is surreal.
Explosive galore
The goal is not to use the "jump" already existing between the dams of Flumendosa, but to build a whole new one, not barring a watercourse, but literally blowing up that plateau, to obtain the one that is technically it calls, in quantity and size, a "great dam". Napoleon's great-grandchildren spared no expense, especially if the money had to come from the bills of the Italians and Sardinians, and had no knowledge, in other people's lands, of the environment and nature. That massif of Jurassic dolomites upstream of the Nuraghe Arrubiu will be demolished with explosives, with a campaign of TNT and plastic destined to last, according to plan, from 40 to 60 months. And they write it without any shame: "It is specified that in some phases of the construction site, such as the construction of the upstream basin, explosives will be used to optimize the construction of the same."
The new dam
The French goal is to build up there a mountain dam carved into the rock, with a useful volume of about 3 million cubic meters to be connected, via an underground penstock, to the existing valley basin, that of the Nuraghe Arrubiu reservoir. . An elevation gain of almost four hundred meters, all to be exploited to produce electricity. A 2.3 km pipeline will connect the new assumed basin. The game of "ups and downs" of the water, in short, provides that during the moments of the day when there is a surplus of energy in the network, basically when the blades spin idle and the panels irradiate in abundance, this will be used to "pump" the water from the Flumendosa towards the new dam upstream, the energy accumulation phase, to then re-charge it downstream to "generate", through the "whirlwind", new electricity.
Electric cave
The French, with this mechanism, think of a boosted electric production, with a power between 350/400 megawatts, lifting and discharging those three million cubic meters of water in just 8 and a half hours. In addition to the gigantic excavation on the plateau, with the elevation of a barrier to be built with all the excavated rocks, to be erected both on the front towards the valley and all around the new reservoir, the project plans to penetrate into the bowels of the earth, at 490 meters deep, to embed a hydroelectric power plant in the cavern, 30 m high with an area of 2,655 square meters, all a stone's throw from Lucifer.
46 km of mega pylons
An electrical substation will also be built underneath from which, according to French intentions, a high voltage network will start that will cross with imposing pylons villages and countryside, lakes and roads, for 46 km, from Esterzili passing through Nurri, Orroli, Serri, Escolca, Mandas, Gergei, Villanovafranca, Villamar, Segariu, Furtei, up to Sanluri. Throughout the plan there is also the "sop" for those who care about the environment: «These impacts, which can be considered insignificant, will be mitigated through appropriate technical and design measures». For the French, after all, breaking through “Taccu sa Pruna” in the heart of the Flumendosa park has an “insignificant impact”.
They spared no expense
And to get there, they spared no expense. The "bill of quantities" is large-meshed, so much money does not put them. The estimated cost of the works is 543 million euros, which would be enough to redo the entire SS.131 or double the Sardinian railway network by electrifying it. In the economic context, then, they have the “courage” to also indicate “overheads” for a good 73 million euros. The figures of the "spesucce" are mind-boggling: 27 million for design, one and a half million of generic consultancy and technical support costs, the beauty of six million for testing and the "very modest" figure of 35 million "unexpected" .
Money from the bills
All money that the French will not put except on one condition: receive it in the form of lavish incentives from the coffers of the Italian State, or rather from the pockets of Sardinian citizens and beyond, who will have to pay more and more to pay the bill overloaded with incentives. for the lords of the wind, the sun and now even the French of water. This is obviously not an easy prophecy.
Incentives first
The French write it bluntly: «It should be noted that, to date, the remuneration mechanism applicable to new pumping plants is still being defined. Only after the definition of the legislative and regulatory framework and the related remuneration mechanism, which will be specifically identified for this type of plant, will the Company be able to assess the economic and financial sustainability of the project ".
Rome decides
As if to say: first let us understand how many incentives you give us, then, if we earn with both hands, we will break the plateau of Taccu sa Pruna with TNT. After all, the French want to do things big when they get there, in the home of others. Until October 16 we can oppose, then, with silence in Sardinia, Rome will decide, as always.
