A round table at the headquarters of L'Unione Sarda on projects for wind and photovoltaic plants in the Sarcidano area, in particular in areas with archaeological sites and agricultural areas. Participating were the mayors of Isili and Genoni, Luca Pilia and Gianluca Serra, the tourist entrepreneur Pamela Mereu and the organic farmer Peppe Prasciolu, both exponents of the popular committee for the defense of the territory, and Paolo Pisu, coordinator of the committee for the train green.

Six photovoltaic plants, nine wind farms with 328 blades spread across Sarcidano and surrounding areas: will they affect agriculture, tourism and landscape?

Pamela Mereu: «It would be the end of development as we have understood it in recent years. I manage a hotel with independent rooms surrounded by greenery on the model of the "pinnette", the ancient shepherds' quarters, an activity that "feeds" on the landscape. Some projects include two hundred meter high shovels, clearly visible from all sides, but no one likes going on holiday in an industrial setting. In Orroli they would like to create a belt of 29 wind turbines around the Arrubiu nuraghe, which will attract the interest of thousands of visitors: as the crow flies they would be 1.9 kilometers apart. A disaster".

Paolo Pisu: «Does it seem normal to you that we are discussing how many blades and photovoltaic panels to install in pleasant areas such as the Sarcidano without a prior study? As if a doctor recorded the effects of pain without investigating its causes. Is this the future? On June 7, an unholy pact was signed in the conference of the Regions: Sardinia agreed to produce 6.2 gigawatts. As if that wasn't enough, the Val D'Aosta Region has presented a wind project in Sardinia. The reason is clear: they want to dirty our territory without affecting theirs. They plunder our sun and our wind, trampling on the rights of those who live on the island. Can you imagine the reaction of those who choose slow tourism on board the Little Green Train and see from the window a forest of wind turbines towering above the woods?».

Gianluca Serra: «The data is underestimated. In Genoni they would like to build a substation 150 meters from an important livestock farm on land owned by the Congregation of the Daughters of Saint Joseph, which expressed its opposition from the start. We consider those lands - five hundred meters from the last house in the town and 550 meters from the Santu Perdu nuraghe - an identity asset. We risk being crushed by this industrialization that goes beyond blades, with substations, cable ducts and everything else. We are working on the creation of the Giara park: will it have a view of the blades? There is no planning, our territory with all the projects presented would almost satisfy the 6.2 gigawatts that should be produced in the whole of Sardinia".

Luca Pilia: «We are witnessing an invasion. Isili is at the center of three wind projects, I have lost count of the photovoltaic ones: none bring benefits to the community. We have chosen sustainable development, tourism, agriculture. Over 10 million granted by the Region to the mountain community have just been invested in development projects incompatible with the onslaught of renewable energy plants. In these parts we have already experienced the industrial mirage with Rovelli, the abandoned warehouses from those times remain."

Peppe Prasciolu: «There are many companies that provide jobs, create income, all eco-sustainable. Our Kentos, in Orroli, employs 20 people directly and indirectly more than 100 farmers, and then there are winemaking companies, others process medicinal plants or produce oil, we have the meat supply chain. They all have in common the image linked to sustainability and the places where the activity takes place, defacing the landscape with shovels would also be devastating for the economy."

Have you met with company representatives? What counterparts did they propose to you?

Mereu: «I have never met them, I know for a fact that some land owners were contacted and were offered 20 thousand euros a year for ten years. If you go to a poor farmer and make such a proposal, he is likely to give in. This is how people are bought and tensions are created between residents."

Pisu: «Multinationals are anonymous, you don't have a real entrepreneur in front of you. They are linked to lobbies that allocate money for a project, period. We Sardinians have learned the hard way that the economy goes through historical cycles, what is good today will be outdated tomorrow: in Monte Arci there are old wind turbines that no one wants to dispose of. Unfortunately there is no entrepreneur to blame. We must think about the future, we would like to hand over the territory to our children in good conditions, as we had it from our fathers."

Serra: «Their specialty is sending communications via certified e-mail to the municipalities. There are informal contacts, they try to trick someone: they don't buy areas, they want to buy people. And this potentially creates conflicts within communities. An administrator must go beyond the advantages of individuals, so he faces a big problem. There is a tragic aspect: if some owner does not give in, they have a license to kill, that is, they can expropriate the land. As is happening these days in Selargius for the Tyrrenhian link."

Pilia: «We were never involved, at most they met us to make ridiculous proposals. Like that of a playground ten kilometers from the center. We forced one of these aspiring investors to participate in a meeting: three in the afternoon in July, infernal heat, the citizens criticized the project with incontrovertible arguments. Once the meeting is over, everything is over."

Prasciolu: «The war between the poor is very dangerous. We need legislative instruments to prevent individuals from being put under pressure, we need planning that takes into account the needs of the community."

Will the moratorium approved by the Region stop the assault?

Mereu: «It doesn't reset the authorization process, so it risks being a waste of time».

Pisu: «It's absolutely negative. There is a rush to submit new requests. In March 2023 there were 624 in all of Sardinia, as of 30 June 824. The moratorium does not affect offshore wind farms. The only gap we have is urban planning, we have to fit in there. The Region, majority and opposition, is not moving. We must do it as an Association of Municipalities, we must carry forward the committees' proposal for a popular initiative law: we will collect signatures in the squares."

Serra: «It has the same value as a precarious barrier put up in a hurry to block a river in flood: perhaps a national provision would have been more useful. Intervening on the urban planning side certainly has a better chance of obtaining some acceptable results. Let's establish what the regional needs are, let's add a quota for the national interest which cannot be enormous. And first of all we use the land that has already been consumed: warehouses, abandoned areas."

Pilia: «The moratorium is a first act, but there is still a lot to do. We need to focus on the urban planning side and identify suitable areas with the agreement of municipalities and citizens. They must already be compromised and urbanized, I am thinking of the former quarries, in Isili the urbanized industrial area is around ninety hectares. We are against these impositions which bring no benefit."

Prasciolu: «The moratorium will not save us. We were waiting for an adequate legislative instrument and we were disappointed. In Ortacesus, in the most fertile land in Sardinia, there are wind farms in the process of approval: they will not be affected by the moratorium. We must have the courage to also question the decisions of the Draghi government."

How do you imagine the energy transition?

Mereu: «The first step is production for self-consumption. As they are expressing it today, the transition is not green at all."

Pisu: «During the election campaign they promised us the regional energy agency: let them move from words to deeds. We must learn to reduce consumption and produce with hydroelectric power."

Serra: «Energy communities, systems only where needed, energy saving. Obviously the large polluting nations must do their part, otherwise it will all be useless."

Pilia: «For the benefit of citizens and businesses, not imposed from above. First of all, we need to encourage self-consumption systems."

Prasciolu: «It must start from the bottom, with the creation of energy communities, and it must be managed in the territories. The important thing is not to compromise the natural resources of thousands of people who work hard to build a sustainable future."

Is a referendum conceivable?

Mereu: «I don't know the necessary times: if they were long the pronouncement would unfortunately be useless».

Pisu: «Let's submit the issue to the scrutiny of direct democracy, to the popular referendum».

Serra: «We are in a situation where “everything goes”. There are also those who are indifferent to the problem or have their hands in the mix: the former must be sensitized, the latter opposed. I'm afraid of the timing, perhaps it's better to act immediately with the urban planning law."

Pilia: «We have little time, but I think that when discussing the future of citizens it is right to involve them. Their lives will be conditioned by these choices, so it is important to know their opinion."

Prasciolu: «It is certainly a project to be put in the pipeline, but we need something quicker. There isn't much time available, and it can make the difference between saving our land or sacrificing it for a revolution that rhymes with speculation."

Paolo Carta
Paolo Paolini
Francesco Pintore

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