Unsuitable areas do not exist. Declared on paper, they do not block the assault of wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. Even if there are monuments or archaeological sites nearby. In spite of maps and perimeters designed to protect (with good intentions) landscape or identity assets. From the columns of this newspaper the alarm, in this sense, has been launched and documented. But there is also the official seal of the administrative judges. They wrote a sentence in Perugia, seat of the TAR of Umbria. But they also represented what the future of the plains, mountains and countryside of Sardinia will be. Should a plant be built? It is done. This is what the current legislation provides.
The court
The declaration of unsuitability of an area "does not constitute a reason for absolute preclusion to the construction of the plant, since the involvement of the buffer zone (...) is only valid to exclude that the area can be qualified as suitable ex lege, but not to extend the constraint regime specific to the protected property". This is what the first section of the Administrative Court of Perugia says, which in August ruled on an appeal against the construction of seven gigantic wind turbines over 200 meters high, proposed by Rwe Renewables Italia Srl, in an uncontaminated territory between Orvieto and Lake Bolsena. The project had been blessed by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, which had decided on the conflict that arose between the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (in favor) and the Ministry of Culture (against) during the Environmental Impact Assessment procedure. Among the many critical issues highlighted by opponents there was one fact, which remained uncontested: the wind towers are located less than three kilometers from an archaeological site. This buffer zone, which would fall within the “unsuitable” areas, is also included in the Draghi decree, which has opened the net to favor the invasion of renewables. To understand: the Etruscan Necropolis of Lauscello is located just 500 meters from one of the planned wind turbines. And yet the green light arrived anyway.
The joke
«The buffer zone» around the monuments, the judges write, «is not established to extend the effects of the protection provisions (...) applicable to the assets subject to it to the areas included therein, but only to establish whether and from what distance an area close to an asset subject to protection can be classified as suitable by law». Therefore, up to now the TAR has established that what is outside the boundary of the “unsuitable” areas is, automatically, “suitable”. In the case examined, the ruling continues, «it is common ground and undisputed between the parties that the areas which according to the project are intended to host the wind farm’s wind turbines are less than three kilometres from assets subject to protection and, therefore, cannot be included among the areas suitable by law». There is a but: the minimum distance only prevents the application of accelerated procedures for authorisations (which «do not in fact appear to have been applied in the disputed procedure», the judges write). But the “unsuitability” «does not constitute a reason for absolute preclusion to the construction of the plant, since the involvement of the buffer zone provided for by the aforementioned provision is only valid to exclude that the area can be classified as suitable ex lege». Also for this reason the detailed appeal presented by Mrs. Marina Ciminelli, owner of a farmhouse threatened by the blades, was rejected. Now next to her there are intellectuals and representatives of the world of entertainment who, in more than 100, have written to Sergio Mattarella. Wind power, they say, is an insult to the landscape: stop it.
Enrico Fresu
