There is everything and more in the Danish wind attack on the island of San Pietro. There is the international conflict between Algeria and Italy for sovereignty in that stretch of sea, there is the war between the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers on the procedure to follow to devastate that stretch of coast with blows of cyclopean wind turbines to be driven into the middle of that exclusive horizon, there is, above all, the devastating impact for the "Landscape" and the route of the Bluefin Tuna, which has always been the primary element of a thriving economy for this Island within the Island.
Aeolian invasion
The wind invasion operation, since the Sardinian Union revealed the project-destruction a year ago, bounces between the bureaucratic maze of ministries and captaincy, between lobbies and hidden persuaders, all intent on feeding the big business of incentives with both hands and of wind speculation in the land and sea of Sardinia. A daily attempt to advance pharaonic projects with the sole objective of pocketing billions of euros, read billions of non-bruscolini, both of capital contributions, perhaps coming from the PNRR, and from incentives coming directly from the bills of Sardinians and Italians.
Today at the Ichnusa Pier
This morning, at 9.30 in the nautical license room of the Port Authority of Cagliari, the State, the one with the branch on the safety and control of the sea in Sardinia, will try to close the game, despite a precedent that looms like a boulder also on this project. The projects already sunk by the opinion of the seamen who govern the state office resting on the Ichnusa pier, those presented on the Gulf of Angels, called Nora Ventu 1 and 2, headed by JPMorgan, owner of Falk Renewables, were in fact sent back to the sender with a dry argument: "The environmental impact assessment procedure is a fundamental and essential step in order to establish the required compatibility of the structures making up the plant with other maritime activities including the migratory routes of tuna and the possible impact of electromagnetic fields with fishing ”. In practice, without the environmental impact assessment there can be no concession of water spaces in the sea.
Phase 2, go ahead
On the project that officially lands in the services conference this morning, there is, however, a further step of no small importance: the Ministry of Ecological Transition has given the green light to phase two of the environmental assessment procedure. A real wind power plant to be placed in the middle of the sea in front of Carloforte and visible even from Porto Flavia: the “Thalassa” project aims to have 35 wind turbines installed, with floating foundations anchored to the seabed.
35 skyscrapers of 100 floors
These are cyclopean wind turbines, each with a nominal power of 15 megawatts, maximum rotor diameter of 236 meters, maximum hub height of 180 meters, maximum total height of 298 meters. The entire plant located in the middle of the sea is a candidate to replace the power of the Enel plant in Portovesme, for a total plant power of 525 MW. Although with a myriad of design requirements, the Commission for the environmental impact assessment, based on the new accelerated procedures imposed with the Pnrr, has given the green light to the lords of Thalassa srl, an apparently very modest company established in December last year with the intent to break the wind between Carloforte and Portovesme, in an area of the sea that rests on the line of territorial waters, but which becomes a fist on the horizon of that stretch of coast.
Vestas, the Danish giant
The proponents of this project declare a tax residence in Rome, but in reality the head and above all the bank current accounts are all deposited in Aarhus Hedeager in the heart of Denmark, one of those states opposed to assigning to Italy the funds of the PNNR which today The company, however, is not suburban stuff: the only two directors of the small srl, in fact, by crossing the data, are at the top of Vestas, one of the largest, if not the largest multinational manufacturer of wind turbines in the world. Certainly subjects not particularly interested in the landscape of Carloforte, the Bluefin Tuna route or the safety of navigation in that geographical area in front of the Sardinian coast.
Opinions to the contrary
In the route to approve this wind invasion, this morning's passage will be essential to understand the alignments in the field and the possible institutional repositioning with the new government.The Sardinian regional council, albeit in no particular order, has sent several opinions to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, most of them, starting from the one expressed by the Regional Department of the Environment, are against it from many points of view. One fact, however, emerges: the assessments proposed in this area are all managerial and in the acts of this procedure there is not a single deliberative act of an institutional body, President of the Region, Council or Regional Council, which would certainly have weighed and not a little in the process of these projects.
Institutional adoption
The “institutional” adoption of the position expressed by the opinions of the Department of the Environment would have been enough to make the position of the Region weigh with the right emphasis on the state table on such a delicate issue as that of the aeolian invasion at sea. In this chessboard, however, already this morning, another relevant issue will break out, this time with international repercussions. The Commander of the Port Authority of Cagliari has already put it in black and white: the projects falling on that coastal strip, as well as the Italian territorial waters, may affect the competence of other States.
The sea of Algeria
The reference is to the establishment of the Exclusive Economic Zone of Algeria with which, through a unilateral act, Decree of the President of the People's Republic of March 2018, a stretch of sea of two hundred miles in a vertical line was practically "stolen" from the own territorial waters towards Sardinia. A possible extension on the basis of international law on the sea, governed by the UN, on which Italy has opposed but without much insistence. An act of unprecedented gravity given that the Algerians, on the basis of that provision, are the real owners of the Sardinian coast beyond 12 miles from territorial waters. In practice, from Algeria up to the height of Bosa, the availability of that stretch of sea is totally in the hands of the African state. Not only the expertise for fishing and oil research, including gas, but also for the construction of these wind farms located beyond the territorial waters. Italy, in this case the Prime Minister, has the possibility to declare its own Exclusive Economic Zone.
Gas blackmail
For over a year this possibility, established by a state law, has been circumvented, probably due to the possible Algerian “blackmail” on gas. Both the Conte government and the Draghi government failed, or did not want to, raise the issue with Algiers, with the risk, however, of forever ceding international sovereignty over that stretch of sea. Now the question, however, can no longer be postponed. The Meloni government will have to explicitly decide whether to "endorse" the Algerian invasion or not, but above all it will have to take a clear position on the wind invasion of Sardinia. The conference of services this morning is certainly an administrative phase, but from the attitude of the state bodies it will be clear whether Palazzo Chigi intends to endorse the foreign wind landing in the Sardinian sea. Last note: the new government has established the Ministry of the Sea. The chaos of skills, however, has already exploded. In the last Council of Ministers, to try to overcome the conflict, an inter-ministerial committee was set up. Of the wind attack in the Sardinian sea, in front of the Island of San Pietro, it is still not known who will have to decide. Between Algerians and ministries, Danes and wind predators, the future of the Sardinian coast is still on the high seas.