The most important environmental impact study on offshore and onshore wind farms in our region already exists and is in nature. The Queen's Falcon did this by establishing its natural habitat and thus indicating some migratory routes. Which are practically all over the island. Word of Domenico Ruiu, 75, naturalist photographer, bird expert and author of some of the most important works published on the Sardinian environment.
So you argue that there is no need to study, just look at the Queen's Hawk?
“Exactly, there isn't much to add. The Queen's Falcon feeds mainly on migratory birds and nests on the coasts of Sardinia, both in the east and in the west, laying its eggs in August unlike the other species of birds of prey. Why in the summer? Precisely because migrations begin in September. Then he goes to winter in Africa, in Madagascar. And the coasts that this species occupies tell us that the most important transit points for migrants are not only the north and south of the island, as one might think. In reality, the birds pass by all over the place. Therefore it would be easier to indicate the possible few places where wind farms can be installed than to draw up a long list of where it is not possible, practically on all the Sardinian coasts ».
So Sardinia is part of the major migratory routes in the Mediterranean?
"Exactly so. The island is part of what is called the "Sardinian-Corsican bridge", that is the route of migratory birds from north to south and vice versa. It concerns everyone, from birds of prey, such as the Marsh Harrier or the Biancone, to the many common species such as the House Martin, the Robin, the White Heron, the Bee-eater, the rare Collared Blackbird and the Wild Dove, not to be confused with the Dove from the collar, which instead is sedentary ».
If the proposed wind farms were to be installed, then, what would be the damage in numerical terms for the birds on the island?
"To quantify it is not easy, but I want to make a comparison that helps to understand how many birds pass through the island: only in the south-western area of Sardinia did the birding practiced to capture the thrushes necessary to make the famous" grive "involved, up to in the seventies of the last century, the death of one million specimens. Imagine how many there may be who pass through the entire island during the migration period. For them there are many dangers represented by wind turbines ».
For example, can you mention any of them?
«Birds in certain weather conditions, such as fog or rain, risk not seeing the blades placed in the sea, which, moreover, in optimal conditions, can be an attraction for animals exhausted by long flights. It may happen that they mistake them for possible perches with the result of real massacres. The night lights also act as an attractor, with easily imaginable consequences. To make them more visible in the northern countries, black and not white blades are being tested; it would seem that in this way they are more evident and less "attractive". The maximum number of protection interventions to date takes place in Jordan, where the blades are turned off in the phases of the most intense migratory traffic ».
But it is argued that the plants will be located far offshore and therefore the impact would be less?
«The Isola del Toro, in Sulcis, twelve miles away from the coast, is very popular with birds precisely because it is very far from the mainland as well as the small rocks just emerging which still represent a safe harbor for migratory birds. For them they represent the possibility of interrupting the long journey. Exhausted birds can therefore easily exchange a shovel for a resting place in the open sea ».
Are there any studies, also carried out abroad, on the impact of these plants?
“I know of a Spanish studio. According to the NGO Seo / Bird Life in Spain, in the area of the Strait of Gibraltar, at least 1000 birds of prey per year die from wind impact. Seo has made an agreement with the Spanish company Vortex Bladeless which produces bladeless wind turbines: a semi-rigid vertical cylinder with a series of vertical turbines capable of drawing energy from the vortices created by the impact of the wind with the turbines, which are certainly less dangerous ".
In short, before setting up the new parks you have to think about it two or three times ...
«Offshore wind is opposed by the mayors of the marine municipalities in front of which they would like to build new parks. I would like to remind you that the highest current value recognized in Sardinia is its environment and that the environment, as required by the Constitution, is a primary value ».
A primary value that would be largely sacrificed.
"Not only. Sardinia is already the third in Italy for wind energy production, but we have the same problems, if not higher in our region, in terms of cost and availability of energy. The problem is that between on and offshore wind, photovoltaic, 190 requests for plants have been submitted in Sardinia for a total production of 30,000 Gigawatts per year when we consume 8000 and they can be exported, once the Tyrrenian Link cable with Sicily is completed, 10 or 15 thousand. And the other 10,000? It seems to me a historical appeal, a return to the times when the Sardinian forests were devastated to obtain sleepers for the railway in the second half of the nineteenth century or the intense mining of 1900, with the island battered but without railway and real advantages from extraction of minerals (except for the poorly functioning industrial archeology). It seems to me that the conditions exist to grasp the non-real advantages of wind power in the future and instead suffer the reality of the archeology of blades ».
Giuseppe Deiana
