All it took was a swipe of the towel to get out of the Silk Road, a state decree to push Sardinia into the "dead end" of Chinese lithium. History is yet to be written, but the path traced is once again that of the Cold War, yet another to get our hands on energy and rare materials, energy dependence and new world supremacies. If on the one hand the Italian State makes diplomatic somersaults to obey the American diktats that want it out of any strategic agreement with China, on the other, the same State of Rome, however, with the subtle silence of impositions on the table, plans to push Sardinia into the most insidious energy dead end, the Chinese one.
The Lithium Way
That lithium route, which from eastern China, passing through poorer Africa, is winding towards the deep Sulcis is much more than an improvident plan to cut off the energy supply of the last island of the country. That traffic of gigantic lithium batteries that has been raging on the Sardinian roads coming from Ningde for days is a sort of dress rehearsal, the incipit of a foreign invasion on Sardinian soil. Just look at those ships loaded with silicon panels coming from the People's Republic of China. There is no exact calculation, but we could reach the stratospheric figure of two hundred thousand hectares of agricultural fields and not only to be invaded with "Made in China" solar mirrors.
The new “addiction”
The operation is on a large scale, without ever posing the problem, not even with a minimum deposit for the restoration of the places, before the abandonment of the petrochemical style island. In any case, one could say in Pilate style, it is a problem of the children to come, today's generations can continue not to care. From the silicon mountains flattened as if there were no tomorrow on the agricultural areas of Campidano and Marmilla, from Meilogu to Sulcis, passing from Marghine to Gallura. Once they were vital surfaces dedicated to the cultivation of wheat and all sorts of goodies, but now they are "seeded" with cable ducts and Chinese panels galore. But if the landing of photovoltaic silicon on the island has been a consolidated affront for several years now, that of lithium is the new frontier of Sardinia's energy dependence.
Rome docet, Cagliari does not
Enel has a very clear strategy: stop producing electricity and entrust the island to Chinese batteries. The entire former public body decides this, thanks to a nefarious state decree, that of the Draghi Government. All with the silent consent of the Region, which did not go beyond an administrative appeal, denying itself the right, even constitutional, to dictate rules in the management of the energy game. In short, foreign multinationals do what they want, state ones do worse. The story of Chinese batteries is, however, much more than an assembly of 140 containers coming from distant China and destined over time to replace not only the Enel power plant in Portovesme. It is, in reality, a real spy story where international affairs, military secrets and mineral exploitation of those poor areas of the Universe shamelessly devastated by energy giants, starting with China, intersect. In the containers landed in Porto Torres and docked in the flooded yard of the Enel power plant in Sulcis there is an acronym that leaves no margins: Catl, or Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited. Practically the world's number one manufacturer of lithium ion batteries, both for electric vehicles and energy storage systems. A true colossus that is gutting mines in every remote corner of the planet, from China to deep Africa, to extract lithium at full capacity, as much as is needed to assume total domination of the world market. From Namibia to Congo the Chinese of Catl do nothing but stipulate agreements of all kinds in order to mop up lithium liberally almost everywhere on the African continent. Agreements that are alarming all the world agencies that deal with transparency and legality in countries that are always borderline. Investigations follow one another, with local populations in turmoil over those extraction-robberies of raw material that leaves Africa without creating jobs, much less development. The race for lithium is frantic. Global supply is currently dominated by Australia, Chile and China, which together account for more than 90% of the 130,000 tonnes produced globally in 2022. Everyone knows, however, that between now and 2035, lithium demand will increase six-fold. An infinite risk, that of entrusting a phantom "energy transition" to new global speculations and uncontrolled economic dominions. And in this match Sardinia will be the guinea pig and sacrificial ground, as decided by the Palaces of Rome. In fact, the lithium battery power plant under construction in Portovesme will be followed by at least eight others, with Enel involved in most of these, both directly and indirectly.
Baleful map
The disastrous map of the new energy dependence goes from another 100 megawatts of lithium batteries already authorized in the Fiume Santo power plant, also destined for closure, to the 20 megawatts, with authorization in the process of being released, again assigned to Enel Green Power to be carried out in Codrongianus. The list grows with the procedures concluded and awaiting the regional agreement, a sort of Sardinian green light to the Chinese "noose". The 150 megawatt batteries of Selargius of Whysol-e await the approval of Viale Trento, the even larger one of Quartucciu of 180 megawatts of EnergyQ1bess, followed by the 25 megawatt batteries of Ottana of Metka Sardinia Eng, those of Furtei and Sanluri of 50 megawatts with the latter, Bess Sanluri, which indicates in the Chamber of Commerce certificate an ownership that is at least anomalous: «Enel Green Power – the share of 10 thousand euros has been pledged». Enel Green Power is still waiting for the green light from the Region for the largest of the battery power plants that they want to place in Sardinia, the one destined for Oristano for the beauty of 240 megawatts, double the one being built in Portovesme . The former state electricity company is also proposing itself in Nulvi, in this case batteries for 50 megawatts. Sardinia "wins" the challenge of the region most affected by lithium batteries: out of 1,121 megawatts assigned in Italy for "new storage" for 2024, the island was entitled to 528. Sardinia, therefore, 47% of Chinese batteries for one and a half million inhabitants, the remaining 53% for the other 58 million. Not everything, however, seems to be going smoothly.
Americans against
The Catl batteries, those destined to fill Sardinia with lithium, have ended up in the sights of none other than the Congress of the United States of America which in recent days has voted a law to ban the use of those Chinese batteries, writing in act that we publish the name and surname of the company “Made in China”. There's more: In December 2023, the Duke Energy company was forced to disconnect Catl batteries from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune for national security reasons. The Americans are not so subtle: the "National Defense Authorization Act" for the fiscal year 2024 has prohibited US defense funding for the products of the Chinese Catl. The batteries that the Americans don't want are sent to Sardinia, so no one says anything here. From the land of Nuraghi to that of Lithium, strictly Chinese.
(2. continued)
