Representatives of the municipal administration and exponents of the business world met to discuss the mega Mistral wind project, which - if authorized - would lead to the installation of 32 355-meter-high blades in the stretch of sea in front of the coast of Bosa. At the headquarters of the Unione Sarda, entrepreneurs Giacomo Forte, Gianmichele Columbu, Elio Grigoletto, Daniel Pinna and the municipal councilor for Tourism Francesco Mannu answered questions from journalists Enrico Fresu, Michele Masala and Paolo Paolini.

Thirty-two 355-meter-high wind turbines off the coast of Bosa: if the Mistral project were approved, how would fishing, agriculture, tourism and the landscape change?

Marco Francesco Mannu (municipal councilor for Tourism): «Sardinia sells its landscape to the world, it is natural that it makes a great effort to protect its environmental peculiarities. This wind farm would be a definitive obstacle to development. Today speculation is cloaked in the green concept, the ecological transition has become something else, distorting the initial idea. Energy communities that would allow production and consumption on site with advantages for citizens give way to monsters like the Mistral which instead only has negative consequences and devastates the landscape».

Daniel Pinna (nautical entrepreneur): «I care about Sardinia, the coasts and the landscape, some roads with a unique view: the one between Bosa and Alghero is one of the most virgin coastal roads in Europe. Everything has been carefully preserved and now they want to start the devastation that would drive tourists away for good. Including sailors, worried about having to cross such a dense network of wind turbines, perhaps at night: where the yachtsman sees risks he doesn't go, he chooses another place. It pains me because we have worked so hard with Stintino and Alghero to give meaning to this coast. A devastation like this is not easy to explain to those who have always respected strict rules in the name of protecting the landscape: we have gone from a total block in the strip near the sea to the green light for cyclopean plants. There are enormous economic interests, but it is not impossible to stop the turbines».

Gianmichele Columbu (winemaker): «I produce Malvasia, one of the ten oxidative wines in the world, obviously a certain terroir is needed that cannot be distorted. As a farmer I am not against the energy transition. Obviously my colleagues and I have imagined it differently, sustainably, with mini and micro plants that offer vital support, perhaps to draw water from increasingly deeper aquifers. Nothing to do with the enormous towers that they would like to erect in our sea».

Giacomo Forte (real estate agent): «I was born and raised in Bosa, like many of my peers I complained for years about the slowness with which economic development was proceeding between problems, obstacles, bureaucratic obstacles even to open a new window. Today I sell mostly second homes, buyers are often foreigners attracted by the local beauty, by the uniqueness of the area. How long will it last? The real issue is the limitless arrogance of this multinational that can and wants to do what it wants, pushing itself beyond the imaginable with economic and financial speculation without a shred of organic development. In this conflict we are too small, too poor, too marginal, you ask yourself what the point is of staying here, what will the future be? Our economy is tied to tourism, I sell 85 percent of the properties to non-residents. The construction sector depends on the tourism sector, which works on renovations. If the holiday industry collapses, the rest will also collapse».

Elio Grigoletto (entrepreneur): «The situation of Bosa and Planargia is unique in the Sardinian context, the identity has been preserved with the development of wise tourism. An intervention of this kind would change the perception that everyone has of the territory with very serious consequences. Imagine lights and little lights that at night signal the blades of ships and planes: who would want to go on holiday in a landscape like this? My possible investment for a new hotel in Bosa? I am positive, the strong concern remains but I hope to succeed».

Have you met with company representatives? Who are they? What proposals did they make to you?

Mannu: «No one thought to contact us. The bad news is that the Ministry rejected our request for a public hearing, blocking the path that would have led to a direct confrontation between the population and the multinational».

Pinna: «It would have been right to meet the technicians who put the project down on paper, to make assessments together. I understand that in that area they fish for scampi and shrimp, but evidently they don't care about the position of the fishermen. 80 percent of the customers who have boats of a certain level, from ten meters and up, are not Sardinians: they choose to come here for the uniqueness of Bosa: they will go elsewhere. If they had told us, I don't know, we guarantee you free travel, discounted bills, instead nothing, no benefit. In twenty years, what will happen to these blades? Who will dispose of them, who will recover them if they fall to pieces in the sea?

Columbu: «No contact. Bosa is part of a widespread city, there is a synergy that also embraces Alghero. Our appeal is the environment, the griffon vulture, our Sardinian condor. If you change the features, the magic is broken. In the near future I would not like to find myself bottling hopes, I would like to continue talking about wine, linking it to the sustainability that embraces every corner of the territory».

Forte: «I have not received any requests for a meeting and I would have been surprised if I had. The feeling is that of an abysmal difference between the dimensions in the field: these companies are giants and we, all of us, are just atoms. They do what they want, animated by an unbearable arrogance».

Grigoletto: «I hope the community reacts. Stopping this project is a goal we all have to set ourselves. Politicians delegated by citizens must find alternative solutions to produce the share of energy that has been assigned to Sardinia by firmly opposing Mistral».

Where would you put the new plants? What do you think about energy communities?

Mannu: «The large wind farms? I am thinking of the industrial areas to be reclaimed, the technicians will say which ones and why. As a municipal administration we are working on the design of the energy community».

Pinna: «In the many areas compromised by factories that have unfortunately been abandoned».

Columbu: «I would give these companies the burden of cleaning up the polluted areas and then installing the plants».

Forte: «The mind runs to the places degraded by interventions that – as will be the case with the Mistral – have not brought lasting benefits. Twenty years ago, when the first possibilities of producing energy from natural sources were being proposed, the basic idea was to free ourselves from an expensive, inefficient public network. Today we talk about something else, the objective has changed: under the banner of ecological transition hides the most abject speculation. This operation has an enormous social cost and will bring revenues and profits only into the pockets of those who make the investment, while energy communities are a concrete possibility, even if the bureaucratic obstacles are certainly enormous compared to the facilities guaranteed to maxi speculative projects».

Grigoletto: «Experts must identify the most suitable places, perhaps in corners that are already compromised. Instead, energy communities are an interesting operation to produce energy, it is a path to follow».

How can we actually block the project?

Mannu: «A European law establishes that offshore installations must not be visible from land. On certain days of good weather from Bosa you can see Capo Caccia, which is 24 miles away, and the island of Mal di Ventre, 18 miles away, just imagine the impact of these very high blades at 15 miles. We must fight to ensure that the law is respected. We do not reject the production of energy from renewable sources, but only the first, real attempt to destroy Sardinia and all the Italian regions with environmentally and landscape-unsustainable projects».

Pinna: «We know the weapons available: publicly protest and put pressure on our representatives to prevent this outrage, perhaps working with the faculty of engineering of Cagliari that has already done many studies on the sector. The Sardinians must show themselves united, at least once, to move towards renewable energy without plundering the environment».

Columbu: «The passing of the days is playing against us. The operational proposals must arrive in human time, before it is too late».

Forte: «What to do? Surely uniting, today more than ever, is a prerequisite that cannot be overlooked».

Grigoletto: «Where are the environmentalists? I think their presence is necessary, their voice should be raised loud and clear in the face of the enormous risk that Bosa, Planargia and all of Sardinia are running».

Enrico Fresu

Michael Masala

Paul Paolini

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