Utsira, 3,260 km north of Carloforte Island, 1,600 km from Greenland, is an almost uninhabited islet in the middle of the icy sea on the west coast of Norway. Frost in winter and summer, glacial and raging wind, in the middle of the sea, 365 days a year. The Norwegian rankings report it as the smallest of the municipalities in that state, 206 inhabitants, all cold and windy. It is no coincidence that the Norwegian Ministry of Oil and Energy in recent weeks has identified two areas in that sea for the assignment of marine concessions for the development of offshore renewables, or wind turbines floating in the middle of the sea. In practice, the government has chosen particularly windy stretches of water, in an area with a low utilization rate, and is about to announce the tender for the construction and management of offshore wind farms.
Carloforte is not Norway
Eni, for example, has already made a holy alliance with one of the most important renewable energy companies in Norway. The former state body also disclosed the news in a statement as brief as it is emblematic: «The North Sea has wind resources that are among the most important in the world. A wind farm in North Utsira could be the next large-scale project to boost the industrialization of floating offshore wind and create new opportunities for Norwegian industry. We are thrilled to start a partnership with Equinor in floating offshore wind thus contributing to Norway's growth as a leading energy nation ». The question arises: what does the sea of Utsira have to do with that of Carloforte? Nothing, apparently. Yet the Norwegian landing in the warm and blue waters of the Sardinian sea, first of all in front of the Island of San Pietro, is impressive, underground and unprecedented. Michael John Hannibal knows something about this, a neighbor of the Lapps who, out of the blue, becomes a partner and administrator of a silent network of companies all in the front row in front of the call from the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition to occupy the sea of Sardinia and not only.
Hannibal & Borsalino
If the operation set up by Roberto Cingolani, minister of the environment, was functional to put a hat on the immense state resources destined for offshore wind, Hannibal made an agreement with Borsalino. Hats everywhere, on land and at sea, with shareholdings everywhere, from the companies directly connected with the projects to occupy the Sardinian sea, up to the Sicilian and Apulian projects. A capillary network of companies all ready to attack, first to incentives and then to the sea. All gambles on the table of offshore wind. A game as complex as it is enough to make the best casino gambler blush. Hannibal, however, is no Mr. Nobody.
"Caddozzoni" & offshore
He does not enter by chance in companies mistakenly mistaken for managers of "caddozzoni" along the sea, complete with sausage and onion, and share capital of 2,500 euros. Its presence is covered, as befits a "clandestine" landing in the Sardinian sea. It did not seem true to him when the Italian government launched the Far West demonstration to invite anyone to occupy a piece of the sea, most of the time with non-existent and imaginative projects. He, a true Norwegian, is well aware that the procedure adopted by Norway itself to assign the stretches of water to the sea is diametrically opposite to that pursued by Cingolani & company. In Norway it is the State that identifies the suitable areas and then makes a public tender where competitors face off with lots of offers for the concession. A subspecies of procedure pursued in Italy, on the other hand, initiated an "expression of interest", a sort of free occupation of the stretch of sea, without rules for participation and selection. Mister Hannibal couldn't believe his eyes when the Italian operation took place. He, who at the same time sits in the elite of Norwegian and Italian companies with a capital of 3,000 euros, has no qualms about entering into business with the champion of offshore projects, Gino Giuseppe Carnevale. The step is short: from the very powerful Norwegian number one “A2sea” to the tiny Ichnusa Wind Power, the company that presented a 500 megawatt water wind farm off the coast of Sulcis, in front of Carloforte. Hannibal's corporate entanglements are impressive and most of them all converge on the Ministry of Ecological Transition list. The corporate interdependence chart is heartbreaking.
Chinese boxes
The "Norwegian" is reported as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company which is a candidate to place 42 blades 300 meters high in front of Porto Flavia, on the coast between Nebida and Carloforte, but at the same time performs the same function in other companies connected with the ministerial operation of occupation of the Sardinian sea and beyond. Hannibal is, in fact, Chairman of the Board of Directors of "7 Seas Med" based in Nuoro, via Veneto 14, from which another series of companies is generated, including the "Nuragic" one, "Nurax Wind Power" present in 'list of the ministry together with the “7 Seas Wind”. Certainly the operation that passes through Giuseppe Gino Carnevale and Luigi Severini, the lords of offshore wind power on the Sardinian coasts and beyond, is all branded Norway. It is no coincidence that the man sent from the land of cold to the seas of Sardinia sits on the prestigious board of A2SEA, based in Fredericia, Denmark, one of the largest offshore wind farm installation and service companies in the world. The Danish goal is clear: colonize the Mediterranean, Sardinia and Sicily first of all. The Ministry of Ecological Transition, unlike the Norwegian one, has no rules. For the pile of wind turbines he has chosen the path of who first arrives, better docks.
Horse of Norway
What appeared to be cheap companies, on the other hand, hide the foreign wind invader, the only one organized to occupy the Sardinian sea. The Norwegians, partners in the Sardinian operation, in fact, are ready for almost anything. A2SEA has a fleet of four vessels all specially converted for the installation of offshore wind turbines. In early 2016, however, something went wrong: the Sea Worker barge was grounded off Nymindegab, Denmark after its tow line broke during bad weather. A week later the ship capsized. Now off the coast of Carloforte there is the Kobi Ruegg, a 58-meter multi-role reconnaissance ship, which is beating down the stretch of water chosen by the Norwegians to occupy the Sardinian sea. The great maneuvers have begun. The clash with Eni, Edison, Ansaldo, Erg and Sorgenia, all candidates to occupy the coasts of the island, is still to be written. With Sardinia sitting on the shore watching the invasion.
