Chinese boxes, frightening corporate intertwining between multinationals and unknown suburban companies, millionaire deals, rich prizes, lots of lithium and in the future even cobalt. The great electrochemical sack of Sardinia is just starting. The case of Quartucciu Bess, the company that would like to build a mega lithium plant to store energy in the agricultural land between the new SS.125 and the urban agglomeration near San Gregorio, is the tip of a chessboard with many pawns and many players. It is always them who give the cards, the lords of energy, those of the Roman palaces, from the electrical offices of Enel to those of Terna, the company that should, the conditional is a must, manage the electricity transmission of the entire Village.
The plot
In reality, it would be enough to read the results of what they themselves call "the Mother Auction 2024", a subspecies of competition where anyone can participate, from the multinational to the latest shabby company based in a suburban garage. Don't call it, however, energy democracy. Behind those anonymous "esserrelle" there are always them, the giants of energy. An awkward, but documented attempt, complete with chamber inquiries, to entrust millionaire operations to unknown subjects who in fact play a mere front-man role. From the "mother" of the latest assignments, the electric auction shows a clear picture of an Italy with two gears, on one side the boot with a lot of energy, "powerful and continuous", with the addition of some batteries to prevent possible blackouts on the other hand, Sardinia, with the closure of all thermal power stations, those capable of supplying high intensity and continuous energy, to be replaced with an avalanche of electrochemical batteries to be placed from north to south of the island.
The electric “package”
Enel & associates even manage to sell this choice as a great “ecological” conquest for Sardinia, with a campaign paid for good money. In reality it is the exact opposite. The concept is simple: on the Isola dei Nuraghi they cut the “powerful and continuous” energy and attach it to the batteries. Not to stabilize the electrical system, but to spend as little as possible. The figures speak for themselves: out of 1,121 megawatts assigned for "new accumulations" to Sardinia, 528 have been assigned. To Sardinia 47% of Italian batteries for one and a half million inhabitants, the remaining 53% for the remaining 58 million. A disproportion that says it all about the blatant and obvious energy "discrimination". If you look at the projects presented in the "mother of 2024", many of those relating to the peninsula concern "batteries" to be installed in reconverted power plants, with the simple and understandable task of securing any technical failures in electricity production, in Sardinia but no, the goal is to make the entire system depend on electrochemical batteries.
Dependent on batteries
A scenario that makes insularity once again, and increasingly, an intolerable gap in the infrastructural preconditions for development. After all, it is impossible to hypothesize that productive activities, of any kind, can choose to position themselves in Sardinia when one of the primary competitive factors such as energy fails.
Gold rush
To this scenario is added the unbridled and uncontrolled race for millionaire incentives. The numbers are gold rush. According to the vocabulary purposely incomprehensible to most, for the "Ability Available in Probability" a real binge of millionaire "prizes" has been unleashed in this area as well. And obviously those who make the "electrochemical batteries" in Sardinia are guaranteed a very significant premium of 51,012 euros per megawatt per year. Doing the accounts in the pockets of the gentlemen who will fix these batteries from the north to the south of Sardinia without a shot, the result is gigantic.
538 million in prizes
For those Sardinian electrochemical plants they will receive the beauty of 26 million and 934 thousand euros per year. Considering that we are talking about an electricity business of over 20 years, the outlay of the tax authorities, only for the prizes, will be 538 million euros. Therefore, it is well understood the silent race that was unleashed in Sardinia to grab so many incentives, all rigorously and copiously taken from the bills of Sardinian citizens and beyond.
Unknown & informed
A race as wild as it is reserved for the well-informed, who in time for this "mother 2024" auction not only set up ad hoc companies, without any experience in the field, but rushed to present projects, most of the time without anyone study behind him, with the sole aim of getting his hands on the "batteries" operation. There is a constant in many of the projects presented in Sardinia: the companies, all without any experience in the sector, were established, in closets or almost, a few months before the submission of the request for the attribution of "new accumulations" and consequent awards in money, a lot of money.
The hidden strands
There are two strands to discover this electrochemical intertwining, one with the results of the “Asta Madre 2024”, the data of which we report in the graph, and the other “unhinging” the ongoing proceedings, but armored in the offices of the Ministry of Ecological Transition. In the first case, the list is limited to 8 assignments, where, however, not many of the satellite companies that have actually submitted the projects to the dicastery appear. The Quartucciu project, the one revealed yesterday by our newspaper, in fact, appears in the auction list with a 52 megawatt plant, assigned, however, to Enel Produzione, without mentioning the 180 megawatt plant for which the "EnergyQ1Bess-srl", has even published the deeds of expropriation.
Already funded
The list thickens with two plants in Ottana, one of 135 megawatts, attributed without intermediaries to Enel Produzione, and one of 18 megawatts assigned to Iren Energia Spa, two in Portovesme, one of 115 and the other of 82 megawatts, also in charge of Enel Produzione. Also in southern Sardinia a modest 4 mw one was assigned to Iren Energia to be built in Guspini.
Waiting
In the Sardinia folder, however, there is a veritable forest of further projects that await the authorization of the Ministry. Here the potential of the electrochemical plants becomes even more substantial: Metka Egn Sardegna in Ottana - 25 megawatts; Enel Green Power from 50 mw to Nulvi; EP Fiumesanto from 100 mw to Portotorres; Furtei Bess 50 mw in Furtei; 50 mw Bess Sanluri; Enel Green Power in Oristano of 20 mw; Whisol-E at selargius for 150 mw; Enel Green Power in Codrongianus from 140 mw. In this ranking of pending batteries there are further intertwining between unknown companies and multinationals.
Furtei and Sanluri, the intertwining
In addition to those already identified in Quartucciu, ambiguous elements emerge in the operations of Furtei and Sanluri. In both cases, the companies were formed a few months before the advent of batteries in the incentive market. In one of the Chamber of Commerce inquiries, Bess Sanluri, the item ownership shows: "Enel Green Power - the share of 10 thousand euros was pledged". The question is legitimate: why does a multinational operate through an unknown and last-minute company? A story of mysteries for yet another electrochemical business in Sardinia.
