Twelve cable ducts to connect as many wind and photovoltaic parks with the substation that Terna would like to build in Nuraxi Figus. If they were built, what would be the impact on agriculture, tourism, landscape?
Pietro Cocco (mayor of Gonnesa): «Many, all devastating. To prevent them we have equipped ourselves with an urban plan, in line with the regional landscape plan, which provides for the possibility of installing photovoltaic systems only on roofs. Unfortunately, the projects threaten above all agricultural areas and archaeological sites. A company contested our choice and the TAR agreed with us. If someone really wants to build a substation, they should use the one already existing in Carbosulcis».
Venanzio Melis (owner of a house bordering the substation): «Eight cable ducts will cross the streets of the town, one will carry electric current at 36 thousand volts fifty centimetres from the boundary wall of my house, even though a regional decree from 2000 establishes a distance of at least a thousand metres from the town centre».
Giancarlo Ballisai (Nuraxino Committee for the Defense of the Territory): «There would be a lot of expropriations. In Nuraxi Figus the cable ducts would occupy a thousand kilometers, also passing over a very narrow identity bridge from 1930. Nobody talks about electromagnetic pollution. The multinationals claim that the evaluations are made after the fact, but if a health problem comes up, what do you do: do they move the cables or - as usually happens - the citizens? Nuraxi Figus is already paying a very high price for pollution, as demonstrated by the number of cancer patients».
Armando Meloni (landowner): "The person speaking to you is a future expropriated person. On my land they would like to uproot over two hundred olive trees, fifty fig trees and as many fruit trees, the vineyards. To build this monument to speculation they would like to use two to four hectares of the most fertile in the country and we would lose a significant part of our income".
Francesco Calderone (entrepreneur): «Our project to build a hotel on the border with Carbonia was approved in 2016, but in 2023 I discovered that Enel Green Power wants to install seven 220-meter-high wind towers right there. Customers will open their windows and see the blades in the distance. I have already invested hundreds of thousands of euros that will go up in smoke, all the properties will suffer a very heavy devaluation».
Have you been contacted by companies that want to realize the projects? What do they offer for the sacrifice they ask?
Cocco: «They tell me about persuasive people with seemingly wonderful proposals. The Municipality has expressed a contrary opinion: we haven't even met them».
Melis: «I have a farm of about ten hectares in Nuraxi and a person offered to buy me a hectare for one hundred and twenty thousand euros. I raised the offer: “I’ll sell you the farm, ten hectares for one hundred and twenty thousand euros per hectare”. He replied: “It doesn’t work like that, we pay for one hectare and the others will be expropriated. I’ll give you 2,000 euros for the agreement without even a deed from the notary. After the project is approved you’ll get the rest”. We are not landowners but small landowners who live by working those lands. The State should protect us, instead it leaves us in the dark about the project and then expropriates the lands under the umbrella of public utility. It becomes a social problem, there are people who are desperate because they have been robbed of the possibility of survival».
Ballisai: «I was contacted by a business agent for the construction of a substation on some land I own in Portoscuso. He told me that my neighbor had already said yes, he was my godfather: in fact it was true. I accepted a two-year agreement in exchange for three thousand euros: I didn't see a cent and fortunately nothing came of it».
Meloni: «No contact and that's fine. Also because I have no intention of having my land taken away».
Calderone: «Immediately after discovering the existence of the wind project I asked some questions to Enel Green Power and the Municipality of Carbonia. Neither of them responded».
How does it feel to know that so many are considering new plants and substations in compromised areas such as Sulcis and Porto Torres?
Cocco: «This idea that Sulcis and Porto Torres should have more invasive interventions is crazy, it is neither here nor there, if it were to take hold we would be ready for an even tougher battle. At this time we must be united, for us the rules used by all the others apply».
Melis: «Our territory has been tormented, now they think of taking away even the small oases of protection. It would be more honest to say that they want to send us away».
Ballisai: «This part of Sulcis is sick and needs to be cured. We have given a lot, we need to invest to heal the wounds and not add pollution».
Meloni: «There is no space to accommodate those monsters in Sulcis and the rest of the island».
Calderone: «We cannot continue to pollute an area that is establishing itself in tourism. What do wind turbines have to do with tourism? Jobs are created with accommodation facilities and services, not with towers. The mining part has been partially redeveloped, in the summer it attracts a certain number of visitors. They want to take a step back with a choice that would fill the pockets of a few speculators unrelated to Sulcis».
Where would you put the blades and panels?
Cocco: «In industrial areas, with limited heights. The problem is the arrogance of these companies that do not give up».
Melis: «I think the systems should be installed first on the roofs. It is clear that there can be no speculation there, so they are not of interest».
Ballisai: «I find it difficult to imagine suitable areas in Sulcis, beyond the roofs of the houses. If the projects were to go ahead, the expropriations would involve the vast majority of landowners».
Meloni: «There are no suitable spaces in Sulcis».
Calderone: «I fully agree with the use of roofs. Frankly, I don't see adequate spaces for large wind farms».
Eight projects have been rejected by the National Superintendency for the Pnrr. Will it be enough?
Cocco: «The superintendency based itself on facts, it supports our battles to defend the archaeological sites, it has done so in other areas too».
Melis: «We believe in the observations we have presented for the protection of the territory, we are very hopeful. There is a problem of distances, a cable duct passes six meters from a sacred well: does it seem possible to you?».
Ballisai: «The Ministry of Cultural Heritage has rewarded us by proving us right eight times. We aim to protect the archaeological areas of Nuraxi Figus, Bacu Abis, Cortoghiana and Carbonia, we would not like to find ourselves surrounded by very tall wind turbines and photovoltaic parks that would drive away tourists and restart the emigration of young people who have found a job. I am optimistic but the risk is very high».
Meloni: «I hope that Nuraxi Figus will definitively become a tourist destination, chasing away speculators».
Calderone: «Optimistic? Well, hope is the last to die, I will fight to not let them take away what I have built with years of sacrifice».
There are gross errors in the projects. In those of Nuraxi Figus there were attachments of Villacidro, in another the reference substation was that of Vado, in Basilicata. Why?
Cocco: «These companies present projects everywhere, sometimes they make mistakes by including documents that have nothing to do with them. Most of the time they will not be the ones to make the investment but they speculate by boasting of preferential lanes in public administrations».
Melis: «Scandalous example, Sardinia is worth Basilicata or any other region. It makes me indignant and offends me as a Sardinian. They say that these parks are an opportunity, but they do not offer any type of reconversion for an industrial sector in crisis».
Ballisai: «An offensive copy and paste».
Meloni: «They don't know the territory, all that matters is reaching the objective with a whirlwind of millions».
Calderone: «I have read and reread the reports attached to the project that harms me: they claim that wind turbines would ennoble that corner of Sardinia. The authors hope in the ignorance of those who will consult those documents. We hope to be able to defend ourselves from this assault».
Paul Paolini
Francesco Pintore
Stefania Piredda