Wind Power News: Italy
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch.
12 yrs asked for windfarm king Nicastri
Anti-mafia prosecutors on Wednesday asked for a jail term of 12 years for Sicilian ‘windfarm king’ Vito Nicastri for complicity in mafia association. Nicastri has been charged in a Palermo probe into bribes for the Sicilian regional government centring on former Forza Italia MP and businessman Paolo Arata, now close to the nationalist League party of Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. Nicastri has been accused of being close to Cosa Nostra’s No.1 fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro. The probe has a Roman . . . Complete story »
12 arrested in Italian anti-mafia operation
A renowned entrepreneur in the wind power industry in Sicily, Vito Nicastri, was among the 12 people arrested on Tuesday, Ansa reported. The man has long been suspected of providing key support to the run of Messina Denaro -- following accusations by mobster-turned informants -- and his assets have been subjected to preventive seizures in the past. Complete story »
Court blocks Italian offshore; 137MW project off Sicily deemed to interfere with cultural heritage
Italian courts have overturned planning consent for a proposed 137MW wind farm off the Italian island of Sicily due to archaeological concerns. Sicily’s regional administrative court this month voided a construction permit awarded to developer Mediterranean Wind Offshore by Italy’s Infrastructure and Transport Ministry in 2013. The decision follows a four-year legal battle by environmental, archaeological and cultural societies. The court also ruled building the 38-turbine project in the Gulf of Gela would violate Unesco rules regarding the protection of . . . Complete story »
’Ndrángheta: infiltrazione parco eolico, sequestro da 350 mln
[Criminal infiltration of seized wind energy facilities in Sicily] Tra le proprietà sequestrate spicca il parco eolico ‘Wind farm’ di Isola di Capo Rizzuto (Crotone) che è tra i più grandi d’Europa per estensione e potenza erogata. E per questo sul registro degli indagati finirono 31 persone: esponenti delle cosche locali, imprenditori, tecnici e pubblici funzionari, con accuse che andavano dal riciclaggio all’interposizione fittizia di beni e societa’, dal falso all’abuso d’ufficio, tutte aggravate dall’aver agito per favorire la cosca . . . Complete story »
Une éolienne se désintègre sous la force du vent
Download MP4 file. Le vent soufflait fort ces derniers jours dans le sud de la péninsule italienne, si fort qu’une éolienne s’est désintégrée sous la force du souffle. Aquilonia est une ville du sur de l’Italie, à quelque 150 kilomètres de Naples. Dans cette région, un parc éolien permet de transformer en électricité le vent violent qui peut y souffler. Une des éoliennes du parc filmée par hasard par les passants tourne de plus en plus vite, avant de se . . . Complete story »
Mafia and multinationals milk Italy’s green energy boom
NARBOLIA, Italy – Thousands of solar panels glint in the sun, but the prized farmland beneath lies barren. While the Italian island of Sardinia revels in a renewable energy boom, the long arm of organised crime risks sullying its clean power ambitions. Famed for its lush plains and emerald waters but racked by poverty and unemployment, Sardinia has jumped at the chance to boost the economy by converting its long months of sunshine into green energy. And it is not . . . Complete story »
Orvieto e Tuscania contro l’eolico, a rischio storia e paesaggio
Tutti d’accordo sulle rinnovabili, ma mettereste mai un impianto fotovoltaico sul Colosseo? O delle pale eoliche nella Valle dei Templi? A porre la questione sono i sindaci di Tuscania e Orvieto che, sostenuti da ben tredici associazioni, lanciano l’allarme per il rischio che si realizzino due impianti eolici incompatibili con l’ambiente, il paesaggio e la storia di due luoghi di pregio: davanti alla chiesa di San Pietro a Tuscania e vicino al Duomo di Orvieto. Niente contro l’energia rinnovabile, anzi, . . . Complete story »
Some EU countries turning cold on wind farms
A wave of political and regulatory uncertainty sweeping across the EU has caused the rate of wind farm installations to plummet by as much as 90 per cent in some countries. The overall amount of wind power generating capacity installed in the EU still rose by 4 per cent last year, outpacing new gas and coal plant capacity combined, writes the FT’s Environment Correspondent, Pilita Clark. But investments have been severely undermined by “erratic and harsh” changes to renewable energy . . . Complete story »
Italian energy tycoon gets four-year prison term
Sicilian energy entrepreneur Vito Nicastri on Thursday was convicted of filing false tax returns and fraud against the State by a Milan court and sentenced to four years in prison. Dubbed by Italian media as the “king of alternative energy” over his vast holdings in wind farms and photovoltaic cell companies, Nicastri is suspected by Sicilian investigators to have ties with fugitive Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro. He was first placed under investigation by magistrates in Trapani in 2010 . . . Complete story »
Italian police seize Mafia boss’s assets worth millions of euros: Is this the end of the line for Matteo Messina Denaro?
In 2010 it emerged the Cosa Nostra was attempting to cream off millions of euros from both the Italian government and the European Union, by snatching the generous grants on offer for investment in wind power – and move into respectable green business. Over the past decade, thanks to generous subsidies, wind farms in Italy have proliferated at a rate of 20 per cent per year, and the Sicilian Mafia soon plugged into this new source of income. Complete story »
